Paramedic Andrew Wood asks a patient receiving end-of-life care at Hankinson House hospice in Brantford: “What would you like to do?”
Whether it’s a concert, kayaking or skydiving that they have in mind, he can make it happen right then and there, with virtual-reality (VR) headsets.
Since many of the patients have limited energy and are confined to their beds, VR offers a brief escape, an opportunity to try something new or return somewhere special, like a childhood home — one of Wood’s favourite experiences to facilitate using Google Street View.
“Some of them get quite emotional when I’m able to put them back in their front yard,” he told The Spectator.
The Rendever headsets, which come with a roster of frequently changing experiences, were designed specifically with health-care organizations and seniors communities in mind.
Brant-Brantford Paramedic Services (BBPS) initially acquired them for a program that Wood — who works both responding to 911 calls and as a community paramedic — pitched to his supervisors last year.
The core part of the community paramedicine program is making home visits for preventive care to reduce visits to hospitals and improve access to equal health care across the community, Glen Cunnane, deputy chief of community paramedicine and special projects for BBPS told The Spectator.
But there’s room to develop specialized programs based on community needs.
“We’ve taken the approach that if our team comes to us with an idea, if we can do it under legislation and financially, then we will allow them to run with it and take the lead,” Cunnane said.
And that’s exactly what local paramedics have done.
While transporting palliative patients, Wood hears about the everyday things they miss, like stopping in at Tim Hortons for a coffee.
While stopping at a drive-thru is not permitted, Wood thought, “Why not?”
Using inspiration from a similar program in Oxford County, Wood developed a “Wish” program for residents of Brantford and Brant County over the past year.
It enables him to fulfil special experiences for palliative patients — in person when possible, virtually when not.
The focus of the program is mainly people who are in their last weeks or months of life, with limited-to-no mobility, who would be unable to easily accomplish their wish on their own, Wood said.
They also need to be mentally competent, medically stable, and have approval from their family physician or nurse practitioner.
A valid do-not-resuscitate order (DNR) is another program requirement, so the process is “absolutely 100 per cent known,” should patient condition decline while they’re out. Otherwise, the individual would likely be transported to a hospital emergency room — typically not the ending hospice patients are looking for, Cunnane said.
In July, Wood granted his first wish.
Gary Wright, 57, didn’t want anything “big or elaborate,” he just wanted to go home, see his cats and kids, and eat Chinese food with the family, Heidi Wright, his wife, told The Spectator.
Within two weeks of applying to the program, he got his wish.
It was “a beautiful day,” that Heidi and her daughters will cherish the memory of, she said.
While Wood can offer other experiences like going to the beach to watch the sunset or taking in a favourite sporting event, Heidi said Gary’s wish was perfect.
“I think going home is the best thing. Honestly, who doesn’t want to go back home for a little bit?” she said.
Back in the hospice, the couple also got to test the VR.
“I had one on and Gary had one on and we saw the same picture,” Heidi said.
“We swam with dolphins. Gary always wanted to go to a cottage, so we went to a cottage through the VR, we went on a safari … had a room full of puppies, and Gary’s tapping his leg like he wanted the puppies to come. And then we went to Italy, and we were on a gondola, and we saw these beautiful buildings. It was incredible,” she said.
As the first Wish recipient, Gary will always hold a special place in the program for Wood, and he looks forward to granting “many more” wishes.
While he waits for more applications to come through, Wood now drops in at the hospice monthly to offer patients virtual experiences, something he is hoping to expand to other hospices.
He hopes it will give locals a bit of “hope and joy and maybe even a little bit of closure for what’s going on in their life,” he said.
To apply for the Wish program visit brant.ca/paramedic.
