Hospice Care: Separating Fact From Fiction

In the living room, a grandfather laughs and plays video games with his granddaughters. Later, he joins the rest of his family to say grace before enjoying a meal together. Moments of life like these may seem ordinary to most; so you may be surprised to learn this grandfather, Robert Mihelbergel from Buffalo, New York, was dying and on hospice care.

Many people think that being on hospice means lying in a bed, barely conscious. Mihelbergel was a patient who proves that is not case. Many of his final moments were anything but ordinary and they would not have been possible without the help of hospice.

Mihelbergel’s experience is not unique. The mission of hospice is to provide specialized care for end-of-life patients and their families. More simply, hospice care supports living one’s life to the fullest with dignity regardless of how much time remains. When Mihelbergel was diagnosed with cancer, he wondered “if there was any chance of getting my quality of life back while I was still alive. I knew at that moment it was time to call hospice,” he said in an interview prior to his passing.

There are many common myths about hospice, here are a few:
Myth: Hospice care means leaving home.
Myth: Hospice means forgoing all medical treatment.
Myth: Hospice means strangers care for you.
Myth: Hospice care ends when someone dies.
Myth: People on hospice are in bed, waiting to die.

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Hospice Care: Separating Fact From Fiction