Serve 150 People Compassionate Care in Bangladesh

We are pleased to report that, after many obstacles, we are successfully integrating palliative care into one of the government primary care centers (Upazilla) in addition to delivering home care. Bandar Upazilla adjacent to Narayanganj is the closest center and will be a model program to replicate palliative care services throughout the country. A recent launch was successful in gaining support from government leaders and volunteers in the community. Every day we are delivering home care, food, medicine, and supplies to the neediest in Narayanganj. Please continue to support our efforts to bring relief of suffering to those with serious illness.

Links:

• Project Website
• WHPCA Website

 Our work in Bangladesh with our partner the Department of Palliative Medicine of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka continues. Here is a short case report on one of the 150 patients we continue to care for.

One of the patients of ‘Compassionate Narayanganj’ community based palliative care project, a 67-year-old woman has been suffering from Motorneuron Disease for the last 9 years. After completing her post-graduation successfully, she was involved in the teaching profession for 35 years. Towards the end of her professional career, she was working as the headmistress of a government school in Narayanganj City Corporation. But unfortunately, she gradually fell ill and resigned from the school.

Since the onset of the disease, she had been slowly losing her physical strength. Initially, she was treated in several hospitals for this condition without any improvement. At one point, she lost the power of all limbs and became bedridden. It was quite difficult to take her to the hospitals. After a while, she was deprived of treatment and medical services. Her suffering was limitless and she was literally counting her last days. At that point, we were informed about her condition by one of her neighbors.

When we first visited her, she was suffering from various symptoms like breathlessness, dry mouth, itching, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, vertigo, weakness etc. With the support and care of the team, most of the symptoms started to subside over time. The patient could not speak but made sounds and use gestures to try to make others understand what she wants to express. She has two sons and one daughter. She lives with the elder son and is taken care of by the elder daughter in law.

The team visits her twice or thrice a week. Since she can’t go out of the home, she is totally dependent on our service and follows the medicines as prescribed by the project doctors. When she tells us what she needs, we deliver the service to her on time. Physiotherapy keeps her away from developing rigidity and physiotherapist visit is arranged regularly for her. She feels better with passive exercises.

The elder son of the patient said, “I am much more worry-free now! How you take care of my mother would have been quite difficult for us. Please don’t leave us. The way you are serving us for my mother, we are eternally grateful to you.”

Pleaase support our continued work in Bangladesh!

Links:

• Compassionate Narayanganj project
• Our website