The Daily Populous Thursday June 27th, 2024 morning edition
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VitalSigns81 on June 26th, 2024 at 13:15 UTC »

It's so beautiful that they honored that patients' wish. I wish everyone had this opportunity.

w0nd3rk on June 26th, 2024 at 14:36 UTC »

My dad was in dialysis three times a week at the time when he died. He made an impression on just about everyone he met with his strong sense of humor and generally lax nature; this included his ambulance company. The various EMT's would say how much they loved being assigned to him, but you figure at that point that they say that to almost everyone.

Almost a year before his death, the ambulance company volunteered their fourth of July and took my father to see fireworks for the last time in his life. It was so meaningful and so impactful. I could never thank them enough.

Spartan2470 on June 26th, 2024 at 14:47 UTC »

According to here:

> Janelle Miles

> November 23, 2017 - 6:28PM

> SHE just wanted to see the ocean one more time — so instead of taking her straight to hospital, paramedics made a detour to her local beach.

> Paramedics were transporting the woman to a palliative care unit in Hervey Bay, about 280km north of Brisbane, when she told them she just wished she could be at the beach again. Instead of going straight to the hospital, they took her to the ocean on the way.

> As she looked out towards Fraser Island, the dying woman looked up at the two paramedics — Danielle Kellam and Graeme Cooper — and said “I’m at peace, everything is right”.

> These words resonated with the paramedics, who recalled the story today.

> They spoke of how they had been tasked to go to the woman’s home yesterday and take her to the hospital.

> It wasn’t the first time the pair had met the woman, aged in her 70s.

> They had driven her home just one week earlier.

> “It was basically a journey back to her home where she was going to pass away,” Graeme said.

> During that first trip, the woman told the paramedics how she and her husband moved to Hervey Bay and fell in love with the esplanade and the beach.

> It was then Graeme asked if she’d like to visit the beach to look at the ocean.

> The answer was yes.

> On their second trip, Graeme asked if she’d like to visit the beach again, to which she replied “could we?”

> He made sure he picked a “really good spot”.

> “She could see the pier, Fraser Island, right through to Point Vernon,” he said.

> He then took a vomit bag down to the water’s edge, filled it with salt water and brought it back to his patient so she could put her hand in the ocean again.

> If there weren’t so many rocks to climb over, he said he would have gotten “down in my jocks” and carried her to the water’s edge.

> Using the bag to bring her back a bit of the ocean was the next best thing.

> “She was there with her arm in the bag and feeling the ocean and she actually tasted the salt water,” Mr Cooper said.

> “I could see her heart rate just accelerated. I can’t describe the feeling when you’re in these situations with people. It’s just very humbling.”

> Ms Kellam snapped a photo of the poignant scene which was posted on the Queensland Ambulance Service Facebook page yesterday and shared around the world.

> “It was exactly Graeme,” Ms Kellam said.

> “He’s that sort of person all the time (and) it was the epitome of Graeme.”

> “That’s why I took the photo but it’s also what we do,” she said.

> “This job’s great to be able to make a little bit of difference in everybody’s day. I said to the patient: ‘What are you thinking? She was looking out towards Fraser Island and she said to me: ‘I’m at peace. Everything’s right’.”

> With their patient at peace, they transported her to Hervey Bay Hospital.

> The QAS officer-in-charge at Hervey Bay, Helen Donaldson, said she got a tear in her eye when she saw Ms Kellam’s photo and wanted to share it on the QAS Facebook page to “exemplify the care and compassion” paramedics show on a daily basis.

> “It’s such a powerful moment,” she said.

> As of Thursday afternoon, the Facebook post had gained nearly 30,000 reactions.

> “Tears were shed and the patient felt very happy,” the post says.

> “Sometimes it is not the drugs/ training/skills — sometimes all you need is empathy to make a difference!”

> Ms Kellam said it wasn’t just herself and Graeme who had these moments, it was paramedics all around the world.

> For Graeme, the experience was a reminder to never take anything for granted.

> “Life is too fast today,” he said.

> “We don’t take the time to take in the smell of the roses and look at the beauty around us.

> He said sometimes just picking a flower for a patient or rolling their sheets back so they could feel the sun on their skin could make a difference in a person’s life.

> “It makes them feel special again,” he said.

> “They know that people still do care.”