Galway Advertiser 1990/1990_02_08/GA_08021990_E1_008.pdf 

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Mary O'Connor talks to Dr. Michael Kearney, specialist in caring for the terminally ill at Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin. He was in Galway to address the Galway Hospice Foundation Seminar.

HOSPICES--A P L A C E F O R L I V I N G

Curing pain is a little miracle
It has become a cliche to say that death is one of the great unmentionables of our society, but like many cliches there is truth in it. ' We pride ourselves on having cast off old taboos yet we have introduced a new one - we cannot accept mortality. We prefer to concentrate on the lighter side of life, on more hopeful things.
Medical advances, heart transplants and miracle drugs encourage us to value the extension of life and dose our eyes to the fact that in spite of all the wonders of modern medicine, we all must one day die. Dr. Michael Kearney agrees death is a taboo subject. He says the Hospice Movement has done a lot to take the mystery and fear out of death and dying. "It has brought death out lata the open by show ing how much can be done to relieve the physical and emotional pain. The hospice can't change the essential character of death, but it has done a lot to allay people's fears. People discover it's a place forttvtog,sot a place for dying." and myths are still cir culating. One lady in her sixties was telling me hew she used to run past the gates in case they would open and pull her in! "People see the hospice as bricks and mortar, a place synonymous with cancer and death. The Hospice Movement is put ting a lot of energy into telling people it is a con cept of care." Dr. Michael Kearney is 36 and comes from a Cork medical family. He has had a distinguished career working first at St. Christopher's Hospice in London, considered by many to be the home of the Hospice M w t n w t Dur ing his two years there, he helped to pioneer pain con trol techniques. He then t U work with French tag after the . handicapped in France. He returned to London to work as a i latertoDuhuu as the bead of Out Lady's Hospice and also coasultaat in palliative medktoe at St Vincent's Hospital. Pain control has been one, if not the central con cern of the hospice move ment. It is central not just because no one need, given modern drugs and their considered administra tion, suffer great pain, but because so many other aspects of caring for the dying stem from pain control. Michael Kearney doesn't believe pain is good for yon. He talks about the transformation in people once they learn their pain can be cured. And how the hospice staff can helptothose final days byjdvtag their time and

in itself--says Dr. Michael
tions to dying include everything from numb ness and denial to anger and anxiety. But fear is the strongest emotion and is often unspoken. People fear the whole process of dying. They are afraid there will be pain, they'll go mad, lose control, be dependant on others or die alone." When I ask is he scared of death, Michael Kearney pauses before replying candidly "I don't know. Bob Buckland, an on cologist in England said one of the reasons we get into this field is because we are terrified of death. It's a safe way, like teasing the dragon. I don't know about that What is important is that we examine our own attitudestodeath, loss and separation. We must know where we stand on those issues. It reflects itself in our attitude and the way we deal with people." He says the aim of the hospice is to do itself out of a job. Caring for the ter minally ill could be done elsewhere as well, both in acute hospitals and at home, he maintains. roses. Thank goodness I have a good team working with me." But while he cannot cure their cancers, he can cure their pain. And that's a lit tle miracle in itself, he believes. "Caring for the ter minally ill is such a rich and demanding job there's a risk of all your time and attention to it. I remember the American psychiatrist Professor Sam Lifton say ing "You are ambassadors of life, not death." That puts an onus on us to live, to do the tings we enjoy do ing. We need a life outside work if we are to give of ourselves to patients." He stresses the need for education, the need to talk about death, to defuse its negative power. "People avoid talking about death and becaue it's not spoken of, it is much more power ful. Some of Its destructive ower is lost when it is rought out into the open. The lay public have fears and so do the profes sionals. We are just or dinary people with

Kearney
uniforms on. We have a lot to learn too." The Galway Hospice Home Care Service has started and is now available for terminal cancer patients by referral from their G.P.Tel. 6 7 8 88.

Big Question
"If you remember back to when you were in pain, the person that was mast helpful was not the one who rushed around, but the person who sat there he says softly. The Big Question

"Should the doctor tell the patient he is dying?" Dr. Kearney is very wary of generalisations. He says it is a very Individual thing and it is important that die time is right. "You have to extablish exactly what the person is asking. One man asked me, "Have I got cancer? " I said "What makes yon ask that?" "Oh, someone said it, but I know I haven't got it" he replied. It wouldn't be righttotell him at that time. "Then, there is the ex ample of another man who asked the same question, lint he said he knew be had cancer because he had nursed his brother before his death. He had been in a lot of pain and the man was worried he would suf fer too." Michael Kearney says you have to clarify what the underlying question is before giving the gentle, not the bitter truth. "If done correctly and at the right time the patient will say "That's not nice news but I know where I stand

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Fears And Myths
He Is well aware of the astounded fears that "The Harold's Hospice has been there for 121 years yet I know fears

Dying Alone
The thought of dying atone inculcates in most of us a range of emotions but fear is unquestionably the strongest accordingtoDr. Kearney. "People's reac

Little Miracle
Working with the dying is not easy Michael Kearney admits. "It has its stresses. It is heavy du ty and is not all a bowl of

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