Insight

Palliative care: Easing pain for terminally ill

What does a 70-year-old widower do when diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and is advised by the doctors not to waste more money on medication? Does he sit in his backyard reminiscing of the good old days when he was strong, beefy and his flesh not wasted by disease and old age? Does he question a Deity (if he believes in one) on why he subjected him to such slow and painful evening of his life? Or does he battle the physical, emotional and spiritual pain by himself all the while wishing he met his end already?In an address in Kimironko Sector, behind a modest green gate, sits an office of an organisation whose role, among others, is to see to that the patient (like the 70-year-old widower) who is fading away does so with their dignity intact and painlessly. This is the head office of Palliative Care Association of Rwanda (PCAR).
The New Times
Collins Mwai