Yasmina Kattou 11:21 am, March 17, 2023
How to accompany with dignity those who will soon die? Most French people want to die at home. But it is impossible to respond to this request for the time being. Home hospitalization is not yet sufficiently developed. Since September 2021, Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris has been experimenting with a new device called "Pallidom".They form a team of five doctors and five nurses. The Pallidom team visits end-of-life patients who do not want to be hospitalized. Mr. Cavallier guides the doctor and nurse to the room of his wife, Elisabeth, 75 years old. "How do you feel?" the doctor asks. "I often want to sleep," she replies weakly.
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Suffering from ovarian cancer and Alzheimer's disease, palliative care is put in place. All in the comfort of his bed overlooking Notre Dame Cathedral. "I'm a nurse. There, I am preparing all the care I have to do for the patient of corticosteroids, an anticoagulant. I'm making a morphine pump."
Home care facilitates access to loved ones
For her husband Bernard, this emergency care at home is a real relief. "We were lucky, in fact, to go through 'Pallidom' because otherwise, today, we would still be in the hospital," he told Europe 1. "And then, many small children like to come and see her too. Then sometimes I sleep a little next to her too."
Dr. Clément Leclerc, head of the Pallidom unit, recalls the role of the device. "We don't just relieve pain, we put antibiotics. If there is pneumonia, we try to treat the problem that causes the discomfort in a curative way." Pallidom doctors were able to stabilize the patient's condition. A traditional home hospitalization team will now take over.