There was nothing else doctors could do. Geneva Thornton was dying.
If her 46-year-old mother, Pamela, didn’t know how to manage that news, Hospice Atlanta and Denise Greenberger did.
“I could not look into my baby's eyes and talk to her about dying,” Thornton recalled recently. “She could not talk to me. But we both could talk to Denise.”
And so when Visiting Nurse/Hospice Atlanta hosts The Big-To-Do May 1 at Zoo Atlanta, Thornton said she and her granddaughter will be there. The annual event, now in its 20th year, raises funds for the non-profit’s pediatric hospice program.
Because hospice care often isn’t covered by insurance companies, their fund-raising work is vital, said Donna O’Brien Executive Director for Hospice Atlanta.
O’Brien said the Thorntons are one of thousands of metro Atlanta families who have benefited from the program, which provides home health care to the terminally ill.
Just months after giving birth to Makia Thornton on April 8, 2005, Geneva Thornton, then 17 and entering her senior year at Douglass High School, learned she had synovial cell sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that occurs in tendons, bursae or the cavities that separate the bones of certain joints. For the next five years, the Thorntons battled the disease.
“I relied solely on my faith to get me through it because I had nothing else,” said Pamela Thornton.
The cancer went into remission but in 2009 came roaring back. Once confined to her left shoulder, the disease had spread to her lungs and heart. Doctors said there was nothing else they could do.
Pamela Thornton said that for next three months, Hospice Atlanta provided the family with a team of care-givers that included Greenberger, pediatric nurses and home health aides who visited their home regularly and were on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
They helped with legal paperwork to ensure that Thornton gained custody of Makia after Geneva’s death. They discussed her daughter’s funeral arrangements and helped Geneva draw up a will. They helped Pamela pay bills.
“They provided all of these resources free of charge,” said Thornton.
On June 23, 2010, Geneva died at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, surrounded by family. She was 22 years and 22 days old.
Having had the Hospice support team, Thornton said, “helped prepare me for that moment so when it came, I was just happy my baby was at peace.”
Thornton said she knows she can’t repay Hospice Atlanta. She can, however, be there when they need her and support the agency’s fund-raising efforts.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said.
To learn more about Hospice or Palliative Care:
American Hospice Foundation
1-800-347-1413
www.americanhospice.org
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
1-800-658-8898
www.nhpco.org
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
1-800-633-4227
www.medicare.gov
Visiting Nurse Associations of America
1-202-384-1420
www.vnaa.org
Department of Veterans Affairs
1-877-222-8387
www.va.org
Center to Advance Palliative Care
1-212-201-2670
www.getpalliativecare.org
To learn more About advance directives and living wills:
American Bar Association
1-800-285-2221
www.abanet.org
Caring Connection (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization) 1-800-658-8898
www.caringinfo.org
Medlineplus.gov
www.medlineplus.gov, click on Advance Directives
National Cancer Institute
www.cancer.gov
800-422-6237
Questions to ask to help determine care options:
How long is loved one expected to live?
What kind of end-of-life care is needed?
Is the most likely caregiver able to provide that kind of care?
Where would dying loved one want to have this end-of-life care? In a facility or at home?
What is the best place to get that type of care he or she wants?
Who will pay for the care?
Can family, friends and pets visit whenever they want?
Is there a good chance treatment in an intensive care unit will reverse the dying process or extend it?
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
