Exceptional efforts see terminal patient flown home to reunite with wife before death

Darragh Mc Donagh

The Air Corps and a team of doctors in Galway have been lauded for exceptional efforts that allowed a 96-year-old cancer patient to be reunited with his 94-year-old wife before he passed away.

The Donegal native had never been outside his home county and had never been away from his wife before he was transferred to Galway University Hospital (GUH) for a lung biopsy that could not be carried out in Letterkenny.

A case report published in the Hospice & Palliative Medicine International Journal noted that the man “started to die” in intensive care at GUH, and was “clearly distressed” by the fact that he was away from home.

He knew that the journey from Donegal to Galway would be too much for his wife, and would likely take too long to ensure that she would be with him before he died.

The report, which highlighted a number of cases in which exceptional efforts were made to fulfil patients’ wishes to die at home, said the Defence Forces agreed to airlift the man to Donegal on humanitarian grounds.

The palliative care team also secured a bed for him at Letterkenny University Hospital, where another patient volunteered to move to a trolley to make room for him.

The 96-year-old was accompanied on an Air Corps helicopter by a junior doctor, who kept him alert as he was afraid he would die before reaching his destination. All of the man’s family were waiting at the hospital to greet him, and cheered as he landed.

He passed away peacefully hours after his arrival in Letterkenny, according to the study, which was co-authored by Dr Dympna Waldron, a consultant in palliative medicine and professor at the University of Galway.

Another case concerned a man in his 40s, who was the father of three very young children. He was dying of cancer and it was his wish to die at home surrounded by his family.

However, he had a chest drain inserted to facilitate breathing, and this would have to be removed if he were to travel home. There was concern that he would not survive long enough without it to make the four-hour journey.

The National Ambulance Service was contacted and the Air Corps again agreed to airlift him on humanitarian grounds. “As the helicopter took off, they left the door open so the patient could feel the wind, having [struggled to breathe] for so long,” the authors said.

As they approached his home, “the whole town” had come out to greet him as the helicopter landed in a local football field, according to the report.

His wife contacted the palliative care team some years later to express how “vitally important” this effort had been for their children, who had been made to feel that their dad “mattered”.

The research paper said the case reports demonstrated the value of extra efforts made by healthcare professionals to achieve a wish that “lives on with families” and helps with the process of bereavement.

“In palliative care, end-of-life wishes are paramount and exceptional circumstances tend to live on in all our memories,” the authors wrote.