A patient receives home care and inpatient support through the pandemic

Ganga Prem Hospice team ensured that the young woman and mother of three had access to pain relief and palliative care during the coronavirus lockdown. When the lockdown lifted, she was shifted to the hospice.

Patient being tested for COVID-19

Thirty-two-year-old Sunita of Rishikesh was the oldest of three siblings. Married off at an early age, she was a single mother of three children, the oldest of whom was a fifteen-year-old who also took on the onerous responsibility of being his mother’s carer as she lived through advanced-stage cancer.

With only her brother as the earning member for a family of ten, difficult financial circumstances meant that Sunita had a hard time getting treatment for her cancer.

Ganga Prem Hospice cared for her during the last two months of her life, giving her palliative care and reaching her pain-relief medication even during the strict coronavirus lockdown. When the hospice team restarted in-home visits, Sunita was one of the first patients to be visited.

As her condition warranted care that could not be given at home, Ganga Prem Hospice advised her to come into the hospice, where she would receive round-the-clock attention and better palliation of her symptoms.

A COVID-19 negative test was a needed for admission, which Ganga Prem Hospice sponsored for the patient and her son, who was going to stay along with her. The hospice ambulance reached the patient’s home in Rishikesh to take the patient for the test in Dehradun, and her son and brother helped her into the ambulance.

After seven days of inpatient care at the hospice, Sunita passed away on July 22, 2020.

Sunita’s three under-age children will need rehabilitation and support. Ganga Prem Hospice will be helping the young family through the long process.

Update: August 18, 2020

Fifteen-year-old Vikki went through what no adolescent should have to go through. As his terminally ill mother’s carer, Vikki saw life ebb out of his cancer-stricken mother’s body.  “I miss my mother and see her in my dreams. I get scared and sleep with my Nani. I saw when my mother breathed her last. I can never forget that”, says the fifteen year old. As the eldest of three children, Vikki was studying in class tenth, before his education got disrupted due to his mother’s fragile health and family problems. As part of a large family that is living in difficult financial circumstances, the chances of the children getting proper education are not bright.

After Sunita’s death, the Ganga Prem Hospice continues to visit the family. Sometimes the social worker alone, and on other occasions, along with the nurses who cared for the patient.

The GPH team is always welcomed with love, but also with some sadness. The family is happy to see their GPH friends, but also feel sad that the reason why they started to visit, is no longer with them now.

Ganga Prem nurse with Sunita’s mother and children

Sunita’s mother reminisces that she had hopes that her daughter would be cured. “We should have come to you much earlier. She was feeling better while she was staying with you all at the hospice,” the mother says innocently.

The worry about the family finances is never far from her mind. “How will I take care of my grandchildren. I have four other children to look after and only one of my sons is earning…how will we manage everyone…”, the mother says anxiously.
Ganga Prem Hospice is trying to help the family by chalking out a rehabilitation plan: education for the children, and employment for the adult(s). The hospice team members remember Sunita fondly. “She was a very calm person. Was soft-spoken, wouldn’t get angry…”, recalls the Ganga Prem social worker.