MSNBC and Kaiser Health News Quote
HealthCare Chaplaincy Executives

A recent excellent three-part series on palliative and end-of-life care from MSNBC and Kaiser Health News noted: “Even when people have filled out living wills, doctors often ignore them. ‘Good deaths are fewer than bad deaths,’ says Rev. Dr. Walter Smith, clinical psychologist and CEO of HealthCare Chaplaincy, a New York research and clinical practice organization that combines palliative care with multifaith spiritual care."

“‘When people’s wishes in the end are not honored, that’s a bad death.,’” added Father Smith.

A second article told the story of one family’s decisions about what course to take for their stricken elderly mother.

It explained: “'The players in each unique end-of-life drama often speak in what amounts to almost different languages,’ says Rev. George Handzo, vice president of HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York City, which provides palliative care.”

Rev. Handzo added, “‘Physicians, speaking medicalese, can rattle off percentages, procedures, probabilities and a laundry list of interventions: respirators, resuscitation, feeding tubes. Patients are listening through a filter of their own values: Will I recognize my children? Will I walk, get out of bed, or taste food again? The medical system is talking science,’ he says. ‘Families are thinking religion and values.’”

To read these articles in full, click HERE.

A Doctor Reports From Haiti

By Lauren Shaiova, M.D., Metropolitan Hospital Center, New York City

Just back from the indescribable. With a new appreciation for chaplains.

There are thousands of stories that pull at my heartstrings daily. The one I’ll share is about a 4-week old baby that was brought to me because she was seemingly listless and failing to thrive. The baby was, in fact, dead. For twenty minutes we desperately tried to bring her back, the parents watching us the whole time with expressions of hope mixed with despair. Finally we had to tell them your baby has no heart rate, no pulse, no breathing sounds. They stared at us. Your baby is dead we had to say, gently offering the baby for the mother to hold. After an agonizing few moments of disbelief, the parents ran off and left us with their dead baby girl.

We dressed her, put her in a cardboard box, and searched for a shovel. A chaplain from Canada was there with us. He had tried to console the parents during this whole ordeal, and was with us through all the resuscitation efforts. He rounded up the nearby doctors and asked us all to pray for our nameless baby that we were about to bury. We prayed together with our volunteer chaplain.

I can’t imagine working in Haiti again – not ever – without a chaplain being there to tend to the volunteer doctors as well as the victims. The chaplain brought peace to a situation that is beyond the power of ordinary words to explain.

Dr. Lauren Shaiova is chief of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Metropolitan Hospital Center in New York City. She has held palliative care positions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Beth Israel Medical Center. She is widely published and has lectured nationally and internationally. Her current research focuses on new medications for the treatment of pain in advanced cancer patients.

John S. Dyson, Government and Business Leader,
Joins Board of Trustees

At its February 23rd winter meeting, HealthCare Chaplaincy’s board elected John S. Dyson to trusteeship, effective immediately.

Mr. Dyson is chairman of Millbrook Capital Management Inc., an investment firm that manages approximately $500 million in total assets. He also is chairman and chief executive officer of Pebble Ridge Vineyards & Wine Estates, which owns and manages three wineries and five vineyards located in California’s Sonoma Valley, New York’s Hudson Valley, and the Tuscan hills in Italy.

Formerly, John Dyson was chairman of New York City’s Council of Economic Advisors, deputy mayor for economic development and finance in the Giuliani administration, chairman of the New York Power Authority in the Carey and Cuomo administrations, and New York State commissioner of commerce and also of agriculture in the Carey administration.

He is a trustee emeritus of Cornell University and the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, and former chairman of the board of Historic Hudson Valley in New York.

“I firmly believe in HealthCare Chaplaincy’s mission,” says Mr. Dyson, “and I will dedicate my time and energies as trustee to help the Chaplaincy realize its critically important commitment to create a visionary new model of residential end-of-life care. I believe the Chaplaincy will continue to play an increasingly important leadership role in health care reform, and its iconic project will serve as a national health care demonstration model for the integration of palliative care and chaplaincy care.”

The Story of ‘Spiritual Bodybuilder’
Sister Elaine Goodell

America Magazine writes in its March 1st issue, “When you think of a hospital and an 84-year-old woman, you probably don’t think of a tiny nun rising daily at 3:20 a.m., trekking by subway to arrive at 4:45 a.m. for her shift as a pre-op chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Many people Sister Elaine Goodell’s age use walkers, but Sister Elaine runs from room to room, providing what one patient calls ‘spiritual bodybuilding’ to hundreds of patients annually of all ages and faiths—and nonbelievers?”

Read the full story here.