Giving the biggest gift of all

Lourdes Guerra-Lines

Annmarie Duggan

In 2009, Lourdes was introduced to a new patient of ours through social worker Annmarie Duggan. The young woman, who was in her early 30’s, was in one of our inpatient care centers. She had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. She had been in an area hospital for 100 days before she was admitted to our hospice program. As Lourdes met with her, she learned about her illness, her wishes and her family. Turns out, her family was in Mexico and the patient’s one wish was to get home to Mexico to be with her family. With no money and her current immigration status, it was not going to be easy. Lourdes and Annmarie, wanting to do all they could to make this wish come true, began working out a plan. They enlisted the help of many other Hospice of Palm Beach County staff members, a local church, the Mexican Embassy and Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation. With all of the support, they finalized details of her plan to get home. They had nurses working to help her gain her strength, a Mexican hospital to care for her when she arrived, transportation to the hospital, medication to last for two weeks and her father to accompany her home. On the day the patient was scheduled to leave, her nurses ensured her bandages – from the previous surgeries she had – were changed and secured for the trip, changed her into loose fitting scrubs, and provided her with the equipment and supplies she would need. They explained to her father, in Spanish, the only language he spoke, how to change her dressings and administer her medications while Lourdes was arranging an ambulance transport to the airport. The patient landed in Mexico later that afternoon, 18 days after she began our hospice program, and was able to spend time in her country, with her family before she passed away.