General Discussion

Some of the stories I am reading here are horrendous, and my heart goes out to those who had to live through that. I had a completely different experience with hospice when my sister died about 15 months ago.

One big difference is that she was already in a nursing home. When I was told she was in complete kidney failure and not a suitable candidate for either a kidney transplant or dialysis, they recommended hospice care. She remained in the nursing home but hospice took over providing palliative care until she passed. We made it down there to visit a few days before she died, and found her unresponsive but looking clean and well cared for and medicated to the point where she was not in any pain. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

All the hospice staff members I talked to either in person or on the phone seemed to be caring and respectful, and I couldn't have been more pleased with how they handled things. It's horrifying to know so many of you were treated so badly, when my experience was so positive.