St. Jude Medical Center Palliative Care

Sasha Park _{on Google}

Jan 21st, 2024

I wish I could give a zero.
I had the worst experience with St. Jude Hospice and Palliative Care. My dad was admitted to the hospital as a stage 4 lung cancer patient. He wasn't doing very well, but at the time, he was breathing through a nasal cannula and his breathing was stable.
This was the first day Palliative Care came by. They pulled me out of the room, and told me that my dad's breathing will get worse they expect him to be on a ventilator tonight. They told me that with his diagnosis they don't recommend the ventilator and that we should let him go. They told us that my family will need to decide.
I frantically called my family to discuss the matter. The same palliative care nurse came back, and apologized saying, "wrong patient".
How can you give incorrect information to a patient's family? Palliative care is suppose to support families not make us more distressed. My dad stayed on the nasal cannula that night, and his breathing was fine.
After that, my dads condition got worse and he changed to a bipap. Palliative care came by everyday to pester us to get him off the bipap and let him go. Shouldn't the family make the final decision? It felt like the hospital just wanted to get us out so that they can have more room for other patients. My dad was still breathing strong and steady on the bipap. I had to ask the nurse to request palliative care to no longer visit.
After my horrible experience with palliative care, when my dad's condition got worse and the doctors told us we should begin saying our goodbyes, we decided to put dad in hospice.
Hospice came by and offered to move our room to a larger room so dad my dad could pass peacefully. We took the offer. We walked with them to transit my dad to a larger room, but once we got there they told us we needed to wait outside while they get my dad plugged in and the room ready.
They made us wait 30 minutes. Once we got in the room my dad already passed. My biggest regret is that i decided to opt for hospice at the end.
The nurses told us the last vitals they checked were at 11:20 pm. They let us in at 12:20 am. When we went in, the bipap machine no longer tracked his breathing and he was already changing color.
Thank you for giving my family such a distressing time at St. Jude.