After the ED staff worked with a patient in cardiac arrest for nearly an hour, the patient was pronounced dead. The family was stunned to hear the news because he had never been sick a day in his life. The chaplain, having been with the family as they waited, now turned her attention to a family in shock, disbelief and deep sadness. The patients’ wife and only daughter looked at each other saying things like, “this is not happening, this can’t be real.” They hugged. Tears poured out, then subsided. They told the story again and again of how they discovered him being unresponsive, of how he was so healthy, never sick, never complained about any problem and of how they couldn’t go on without him.
“Do you have a pastor I can call for you?” the chaplain asked. No, no church family, no relatives, not really even any friends. They supported one another as a family. What are they going to do? “I can’t make it without him!!?”
Grieving loss is a common part of life. It happens when someone we love dies, when a relationship ends, when we can’t do the things we used to be able to do, when things change in our lives. It’s a part of living that we would like to avoid, deny or skip altogether.
Although the word grief or grieving is most commonly associated with our response to the death of someone we love, it can also describe our response to any type of loss or change, positive or negative. Whether our lives seem great or not, most of us have a sense of who we are based on what we know and what is comfortable for us. When people we love are no longer there or situations change, we grieve for who or what is no longer part of our reality.
At Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford, we care about our patients and their families who are grieving. Although the pastoral care department has been providing spiritual care including grief support at the bedside for many years, we are now developing new and innovative ways to respond to a diverse community seeking accessible and interactive resources and support for grief.
Please check back to this blog frequently for new resources for processing grief, faith and caregiving. In the meantime, please call the department of pastoral care at 817-848-4811 for more information or to request support as you grieve. A prayer book also is available here.
“Do you have a pastor I can call for you?” the chaplain asked. No, no church family, no relatives, not really even any friends. They supported one another as a family. What are they going to do? “I can’t make it without him!!?”
Grieving loss is a common part of life. It happens when someone we love dies, when a relationship ends, when we can’t do the things we used to be able to do, when things change in our lives. It’s a part of living that we would like to avoid, deny or skip altogether.
Although the word grief or grieving is most commonly associated with our response to the death of someone we love, it can also describe our response to any type of loss or change, positive or negative. Whether our lives seem great or not, most of us have a sense of who we are based on what we know and what is comfortable for us. When people we love are no longer there or situations change, we grieve for who or what is no longer part of our reality.
At Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford, we care about our patients and their families who are grieving. Although the pastoral care department has been providing spiritual care including grief support at the bedside for many years, we are now developing new and innovative ways to respond to a diverse community seeking accessible and interactive resources and support for grief.
Please check back to this blog frequently for new resources for processing grief, faith and caregiving. In the meantime, please call the department of pastoral care at 817-848-4811 for more information or to request support as you grieve. A prayer book also is available here.
Linda White
Chaplain
Texas Health HEB
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI am a bereavement coordinator at a local hospice and I found this article very informative and helpful and I am sure this resource for blogging will be very beneficial for the patients and families at HEB hospital. Thank you for acknowledging the grief that the patients and family members experience.
Our culture has become very good at denying that death exists and denying the grief that goes with it. This is a great way to acknowledge both of those things. "To name the elephant in the room, so to speak"
Blessings,
Rev. Tammy Wynn
tammyewynn@gmail.com
Hi Linda. Great Blog! Thanks for the Prayer Book link. I look forward to the new resources for processing grief, faith and caregiving.
ReplyDelete--Stan