A patient comes to GPH from 1600 miles away

A mechanical engineer suffering from oral cancer finds himself all on his own with a progressive disease, no job, support, or friends. Till he finds Ganga Prem Hospice.

A happy patient with a Ganga Prem Hospice nurse

One evening Ganga Prem Hospice received a phone call from a concerned nurse that there was a homeless cancer patient sheltering in the parking lot of a hospital in Rishikesh. Prabhakaran had nobody to care for him and was being given food and tea by some concerned members of the community and some compassionate hospital staff were helping him too. The Ganga Prem Hospice team, armed only with a phone number of a hospital nurse who was worried about him, and the patient’s photograph, reached the busy institute the next day and traced the patient who was undergoing outpatient treatment for cancer at the hospital but was clearly in need of nutrition and hygiene care.

Nasogastric tube feed every two hours

When it was certain after a few days that Mr Prabhakaran had no more curative treatment to be had at the hospital, the hospice team brought him to the inpatient facility in January 2021 for him to receive palliative care.

Since January 2021, Ganga Prem Hospice has provided round-the-clock care to the patient, with daily dressing, nasogastric feed every two hours, hair and scalp care for the sores that had developed due to lack of hygiene and participation in social activities at the hospice.

From lying unattended in truck parking areas in Haridwar, and later in a hospital in Rishikesh, to a room of his own with his name plate on its door at Ganga Prem Hospice—Prabhakaran is now a happier man with a sound support structure around him.