Heart of Hospice serves patient via boat

NEW ORLEANS - Dec. 20, 2018 - PRLog -- Heart of Hospice ensures that they meet patients wherever they call home, even if it requires a boat to do so.

At the end of a two-mile dirt road scattered with salt-water filled potholes lies a small Native American fishing community. The community is over 200 years old, only accessible via boat, and consists of boathouses, a school, a church and a cemetery. As neighbors pass each other on the water they wave, inquiring about family members and recent events. Nearly everyone in the community lives primarily off the land by fishing, crabbing, and shrimping.

This community, though hidden to many, is what Theresa Reyes called home. Reyes, a 72-year-old patient born and raised along the Grand Bayou, has battled stage four colon cancer for over five years.

As Reyes' condition progressed, she needed hospice care, but had trouble finding a hospice willing to serve her at home due to its accessibility only by boat. Heart of Hospice, priding themselves on meeting patients wherever they are, did not hesitate to serve Ms. Reyes.

The Heart of Hospice care team made a trip to assess Reyes' eligibility and admitted her shortly after. Each visit the care team—aide, nurse, chaplain, and social worker—was carefully coordinated: they drove to the end of the dirt road to meet either Reyes' husband or sister at the dock, and then, rode out to Reyes' house via boat in order to care for her.

Mary Abadie was Reye's primary nurse and could not be prouder to serve her. Abadie shared that, "There is a light and a life in the community that you can't find anywhere else; when you board the boat you become family. The people of the community have needs just like everyone else and it is our job to serve them--location makes no difference. We will go anywhere necessary to deliver the care that someone needs and for this I am honored to be able to serve patients on their own terms."

In the past, Heart of Hospice has served patients who live in all sorts of different environments, even tents. Wendy LaCaze, senior administrator for the Heart of Hospice-New Orleans, says she is proud of the service they have been able to provide. She shared, "At Heart of Hospice, our strength is derived from a common thread, we are New Orleans and we understand that we are caring for our families and friends. We remain humbled by the faith and confidence that this community has entrusted to us by allowing us to serve over 4,000 patients in our eleven years of service."

Individuals interested in learning more about hospice can visit https://www.heartofhospice.net