Today we saw a different side of Argentina than we have seen the days prior. After sitting through some traffic in route to Pilar our day started with a lecture focused on Argentinian healthcare. After this lecture we visited two community centers that focused on health services, but also provided other social services to the people. After these visits our final stop was to a hospice center, Buen Samaritano, with a presentation led by Dr. Matías Najun.
Our visit to the Hospice care facility felt like more of a home than it did a hospice care center. Upon arrival, as we got off the us, we were met with an entrance way filled with plants and were walked through the property that the hospice center sits on, filled with various house looking buildings. My first though when we arrived and I saw the red wood buildings was that the hospice center would be some sort of what I imagined concrete building behind it. To my surprise, this building was the hospice care center meant to feel like a home. Aside from the home feel of the building, the property had a garden, and had a chapel. Our group was told that up to 6 people could stay in the home at a time, and again to my surprise all operations were run on donations, and volunteers. It was quite touching to know that the involvement of the people there were solely out of the goodness in their hearts. In our time their we were told about what exactly hospice is, or what they call palliative care, and were told about why they do what they do. Essentially, we were told that the role of palliative care is to give people a home to pass in peace. This center in particular helped poor patients, some of who did not have family present, and only housed adults. Dr. Najun spent some of the time telling us about one their guests as they called them who was in their care and over the course of his stay transformed into a healthier individual at peace at his passing. This story amazed me because Dr. Najun talked about this guest’s poor upbringing, coupled with his deteriorating condition with colon cancer, yet in the days when the pain was the worst were the days that he transformed, renewing his faith and becoming at peace with is condition. His story and the aim of the Hospice care to provide the utmost care for their guests whether that we in the last year or month of their life is truly inspiring.
Walking away from this visit I think it is important to reflect on the importance of these facilities in Argentina. Especially in lower income incomes, the treatment these people receive in the public hospitals after doctors are unsure of what is left to do can often times be neglecting. These facilities are making remarkable steps in attempting to understand what we need to provide those that as we are passing, and how we can comfort them. Dr. Najun used an inspiring analogy to help us understand how we can look at the end of life. He discussed the idea of taking a trip. If you go to Alaska you are going to pack clothes that will keep you warm, and if you pack for Miami you are going to pack clothes that you can wear in the heat. But, as he discussed, if you pack clothes to go to Alaska and then you end up in Miami you are going to be hot, and vice versa. This analogy shows us that we must try to “pack the right bags” and make sure that the people whole are suffering these illnesses understand what their “package” entails and what their next steps should be to be the most comfortable that they can be. In this case, Dr. Najun talked about Buen Samaritano as this last step to find people before passing. An approach that he explains may mark an end in this chapter of our lives, but will not be the end.
