Griffith resident Alfred “Fred” Negrete was a busy, active family man who was hard to slow down. A retired supervisor from Inland Steel, he was an avid collector of coins, stamps and airplane models. Negrete was a devoted husband of 43 years, father and grandfather. His pride and joy were his three children, seven grandchildren and watching all their sports and activities.
A series of health challenges that occurred when Negrete was in his late 60s suddenly changed his quality of life. He was a kidney and liver transplant recipient. Then he developed chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). Medical attention for these chronic conditions eventually brought Negrete to Community Hospital in Munster where he and his family were guided through the medical landscape by the palliative care team.
Community Hospital in Munster, St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago and St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart provide palliative care for patients who are chronically ill and are in need of inpatient and outpatient support to enable them to have the best quality of life possible.
Palliative care can begin at diagnosis and continue throughout treatment. Hospice care, in contrast, begins after treatment is stopped and the goal is no longer to cure, but to provide comfort and the best quality of life possible.
“We see patients with chronic conditions such as CHF, COPD, cancer, dementia, stroke, conditions that cause them to continue to be readmitted to the hospital,” says Nurse Practitioner Amanda LeVin, Community Hospital. “Then we get involved through physician or staff referral and make a different plan for continuum of care that hasn’t been made before. The reason for our consult most of the time is to talk about goals of care or direction of care with the patient and their family members. Palliative care is about planning for the future; educating them about their disease process, painting a picture of what they can expect; worst case scenario options, potential resources; it’s a lot to talk about.”
Negrete’s widow Vicki says that palliative care helped her family help their loved one by gaining a better understanding about what he was going through and being educated on what to expect during the next steps in his treatment.
“We finally had some direction in putting Fred’s care back into our hands because up until that point we did not know what was going on,” Negrete explains. “As much as I had been at Fred’s side all along, this was the first time I was hearing about how we could help with the decision making in his care. Amanda gave us her number and said I could text her and she would come down and see me when I was there at the hospital and answer my questions and fill me in on what was happening next. She got all of us on the same page. She was our angel when it came to keeping us informed as to what had happened; what was new since the last time I was there. They made our lives easier instead of demanding to know what we wanted to do while in a panic mode.”
Negrete says that her husband always said he had nine lives and he knew his was running out, but with the help of palliative care, he was able to still enjoy visits home with his family. He was home for two months at Christmastime. He went back to the hospital January 4, 2019 and came home on Valentine’s Day. He went back to the hospital on April 25 for the last time before passing on May 4.
She says that she will always be grateful for the support she received from the palliative care team and wished she had known about palliative care sooner.
“It really helped us to help him,” says Negrete. “I finally found the support that I needed and I wasn’t going to let go. We still keep in touch today.”
“Palliative care helps the patient and their family members move forward from curative care to disease-based care to maintaining comfort and quality of life,” LeVin says. “We recognize that we have a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of family members and help our patients have good outcomes as far as their wishes.”
For more information about palliative care at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org.
