2012 Daffodil Days Benefits Presbyterian Home Healthcare and Hospice

Presbyterian Home Healthcare's Home Care and Hospice Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, serving patients from Algodones to Belen and from Rio Rancho to Moriarty. Following is the story of one of our Hospice patients.

Daffodil Days benefits Presbyterian Home Healthcare, which includes Home Care, Palliative Care and Hospice Services. Available from Algodones to Belen and from Rio Rancho to Moriarty, these services together offer peace and dignity to patients and their families at a very difficult but special time.

We met Hazel several years ago at the Memorial Tree Celebration, and this is her experience with Presbyterian Hospice…

Hazel and Jim photographed during the holiday season in Albuquerque

It was 1975 and Hazel was working as a supervisor in procurement at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Jim was an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, investigating why the number of rifles checked out for shooting practice was consistently higher than the count returned at the end of the day.

While hot on the trail, Jim ran headlong into Hazel, who had another problem – an employee fudging numbers on supply orders and pocketing the overpayments. Jim read Hazel the riot act for the problem, and she wished him into a ‘black hole.’

A couple of years later Hazel needed help from the union, and it was the ‘black hole’ who came to the rescue. Jim was in his early 50s and she was in her early 40s, and it was puppy love – marriage came in November 1977.

“Jim and I were married 30 years 7 months and 22 days when he passed away,” Hazel said. They were wonderful years filled with friends, fun and lots of travel.

Hazel stopping at the Foundation office for a visit

In 2007 when Jim was diagnosed with cancer, Hazel contacted Presbyterian Hospice. She called on a Thursday; they were there Monday morning to help. “They came regularly, spent a lot of time visiting with Jim, and were so careful to make him comfortable,” she related. One day Hazel made a passing remark to a caregiver that if she had a wheelchair, she could take him for ‘walks’ herself. The next day, she had one.

“The Hospice experience was very positive,” she said. “Everyone was caring, and they were always available to answer questions with so much patience,” she added. “I never would have been able to handle the situation without Hospice, and they were there for both of us, working all the time to meet both our needs. They were indispensible,” Hazel asserted.

Presbyterian Home Healthcare services are tailored to meet the individual needs of patients. To learn more, request a brochure, or speak with a Hospice professional, please call (505) 559-1122.

For more information about Daffodil Days, the Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation or please go to www.phs.org/foundation, or call (505) 724-6577.

About Presbyterian Hospice Services

H ospice has nurses specially trained in pain and symptom management, who help each of our patients maintain physical comfort. Social workers and counselors provide a much-needed sympathetic ear and work with patients and their families to help them obtain community-based assistance when needed. 

Hospice chaplains support patients with spiritual issues related to the end of life and provide bereavement counseling to the families. 

The Hospice Home Health Aides and Homemakers help with the routine details of daily living, including assistance with errands. 

In all, Hospice strives to offer peace and dignity to patients and their families at this difficult but very special time.

About Palliative Care Consult Services

Palliative Care Consult services are provided to patients and families to relieve suffering physically, psychologically, spiritually, socially and practically. These services are for patients diagnosed with serious life-limiting illnesses.

About Home Care Services

The program provides care to homebound patients who need any of the following services on an intermittent basis: 

• Skilled Nursing Care
• Physical Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Speech Therapy
• Medical Social Services
• Home Health Aide Assistance
• Specialty Care programs
  • Palliative Home Care
  • TeleHealth
  • Women's and Children's high-risk care
  • Wound care
  • Cardiac and Orthopedic rehabilitation
  • Nursing management of pain and infusion therapy

Presbyterian Home Healthcare services include Home Care, Palliative Care, and Hospice Services that are tailored to meet the individual needs of our patients. Your purchase of daffodils will make a real difference in someone's life. Thank you.

Find out more about Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation and Daffodil Days, or get your flowers at any of the many convenient sales locations. You may also call us at (505) 724-6580.

To learn more about Presbyterian Home Healthcare and Hospice, to request a brochure, or to speak with a Hospice Professional, please call (505) 559-1122.