There is such a hospital in Shanghai, its purpose is not to treat and save people, but to let patients wait for death with dignity.
It has been established for 10 years and has sent more than 1,000 patients, the oldest of whom is 103 years old and the youngest is only 3 years old.
It is strange that such a place to face death is very popular with patients.
Everything in the world changes rapidly. When death is imminent, how will the dying person shake hands with death?
01
This is the "hospice ward" of Shanghai Linfen Hospital.
Wang Xuewen has parotid gland cancer and is the longest patient in the ward. After living for a long time, he also made this his home.
Like all patients who choose hospice, Wang lives in the palliative care area on the second floor, the first hospice ward in Shanghai.
In fact, hospice care does not rescue and heal patients, but only tries to alleviate the patient's pain, because what hospice wants to do is to help a dying person walk through the last journey of life gracefully with dignity.
In order to enjoy the peace and comfort before death, instead of being covered with various tubes, connected to life-sustaining machines, and leaving this world alone in the ICU. Wang Xuewen decided to say a final goodbye to his loved ones at the end-of-life hospital.
In fact, when he first moved in, Wang Xuewen knew very well that he only had 3 months left to live, but he also hoped that a miracle would happen.
However, when Wang Xuewen gave up all hope, had no desire or want, and just quietly completed the final farewell, a miracle really happened, and he lived another 5 years longer than the "dying period" that the doctor said.
In 2010, after learning the diagnosis, Wang Xuewen calmed down for a day before saying goodbye to his family. At that time, the first person he contacted was his mother.
This disease crisis seems to be swept by an overwhelming and terrible force. For the mother Zeng Xiaolu, when she learned that her son was seriously ill, a survival slap hit her in the face, and her hair turned completely white in just three days.
But at that time, Wang Xuewen said very calmly: he wanted to die with dignity, and he himself could fully accept this fact.
As a result, what Zeng Xiaolu did not expect was that in the hospice hospital, his son lived for 5 years. For Zeng Xiaolu, every day of the past five years has been a special gift from heaven.
October 6, 2015 is Wang Xuewen's fifth birthday in the hospital. On his birthday in previous years, there were also patients who celebrated his birthday together.
On this day, Wang Xuewen, lying on the hospital bed, not only washed his hair, but also wiped his body clean because of the help of the nurse.
In fact, every time he cleans his body, Wang Xuewen has to bear the pain of raising his head and turning over, but even so, he is happy to enjoy this "sense of existence".
It's a basic piece of decency, and Wang Xuewen appreciates every moment of experience. Expressing gratitude is another of Wang Xuewen's last words.
Early in the morning, Zeng Xiaolu made Wang Xuewen's favorite river shrimp, taro, and radish roasted ribs, and the eldest brother specially bought a large fresh milk cake for him.
Wang Xuewen gave a piece to his patient Shu Guo, who was next to the bed, but Shu Guo could no longer eat normally, and his wife quietly placed the cake at the end of the bed.
For most patients in this hospital, few survive more than 3 months, and some even leave the next day.
What Wang Xuewen didn't expect was that on the second day of his birthday, Shu Guo, the eldest brother next to the bed, also quietly "left".
He walked abruptly and quietly, having stopped his heartbeat when the doctor arrived, as if asleep. Death doesn't seem to come on purpose.
Faced with the death of Shu Guo, Wang Xuewen was not sad, just silent. He knew the true face of death, but it really happened, and he had some regrets.
Wang Xuewen was lying on the bed, holding the music box given to him by Shu Wai's niece, listening to music. Maybe he is not listening to music at all, he just wants to live in a person's world, separated from the world by the noisy sound of music.
Wang Xuewen has to go through such a parting three or four times a month. After many times, parting became an ordinary thing in his heart. He felt that fighting the disease was already very difficult, and there was no need to add other burdens to his soul.
We feel sad or painful about the separation of friends and relatives, but this is normal. After all, we have to learn to accept it eventually, because this is life!
Life belongs to life, and in the same way, death belongs to life.
02
Compared with Wang Xuewen, who is bedridden all year round, and Shu Guo, who is always sleepy and dies suddenly, Liang Jinlan is relaxed despite her poor physical condition, and she is still as bright as the sun in the ward, and she is loved by medical staff and other patients.
After more than ten years of fighting the disease, Liang Jinlan realized that the possibility of improving the quality of life is becoming less and less, and instead of dying in embarrassment, it is better to choose to bow to death without losing dignity.
Although she knows that time is short, 71-year-old Liang Jinlan believes that in the final stage of life, the important label is "living", not "dead".
Since Liang Jinlan fell ill, his daughter Tao Wenjie took her to travel to Asian countries; Friends also pushed her in a wheelchair to see the scenery everywhere, leaving her the most beautiful memories in her life.
With the company of love, death is no longer a desperate thing for Liang Jinlan. Since you can't escape, then before you have been destroyed by it, say goodbye and leave frankly.
In fact, when she arrived at the end-of-life hospital, Liang Jinlan had only 20 days left to live.
However, on October 13, 2015, the hospital held a Chung Yang Festival cultural event, and Liang Jinlan spent the last festival of her life with her patients.
But after that day, all of Liang Jinlan's thoughts were worried about his wife. Letting her wife with severe cerebral infarction live in a nursing home is Liang Jinlan's last wish before her life ends.
The daughter told Liang that she had sent her father to a good nursing home, and soon after, Liang Jinlan collapsed, and this time she never got up. On the 19th day of admission, she was admitted to a care unit.
However, Liang Jinlan, who was seriously ill, still insisted on writing a letter.
Even if death is near, she will leave this world with dignity. She wants to say a friendly goodbye to herself; Leave a farewell to those who have always been with you; It is also necessary to give others a comfort and the courage to go on the road.
In fact, life is very realistic, death, like air, always happens and exists silently, making people unable to capture and untell.
In the last few days before her death, Liang Jinlan took out the letter that had been written for several days.
In the letter, Liang Jinlan thanked all the people in her life who had warmed her. After reading the letter, she smiled, a smile that erased the distance of the years and forgot all the pains.
In the last moments of her life, Liang Jinlan gave her family the gift of love for the last time: she passed away peacefully and peacefully.
Love happened in Liang Jinlan's body until the last moment of her life.
Unfortunately, her wife Tao Jialin did not have time to see her for the last time. On his daughter's way to the hospital with him, he cried like a child.
Liang Jinlan left a sense of meaning and decency to those around him. This has also had a huge and lasting impact on the patients and loved ones around them.
In fact, for people whose lives are coming to an end, one more day to live is one more uncomfortable day. The deepest pain of the patient's life can not be experienced by anyone.
Instead of letting an 86-year-old man suffer for one more day, it is better to let go of the burden of life sooner.
03
For the families, although the loss of their loved ones makes them extremely sad, they understand that even if they have all kinds of reluctance, they do not want to see each other in such pain.
That's the case with 27-year-old Wang Long.
No one could appreciate that in just one day, he faced two family members at the same time when he was seriously ill.
This morning, Wang Long had just sent his father to the hospice ward, and his mother Wang Haizhen had a car accident on the way to the hospital.
On this day, Wang Long changed dramatically, as if he had been washed away by a storm. But Wang Long suppressed the chaos in his heart, running between the two hospitals while taking care of his parents.
At this moment, Wang Long strongly felt how important it was for him that his parents were alive and the family was intact.
However, before his father became seriously ill, Wang Long was rarely close to his father, and after he became a soldier in his senior year, the father and son rarely saw each other.
"I went to the hospital to check it and it relapsed." One day, Wang Long suddenly received a call from his father, and his whole person was instantly stunned...
His father, Wang Yuejin, has been suffering from rectal cancer for 18 years. Now, his father's condition suddenly deteriorated, and Wang Long began to reconcile with his father.
Unfortunately, after ten days of hospitalization, Wang Yuejin left Wang Long forever.
While dressing his father in a birthday robe, Wang Long saw a jade pendant engraved with his zodiac sign, the dragon.
Wang Long, who has always been strong, suddenly realized at this moment that his understanding of his father was only the tip of the iceberg.
The moment the door closed, his heart suddenly burst like a dam, but in the end he only shouted: "Father go!" ”
Then, although he tried to open his mouth to speak, he let out a hollow, mournful whimper.
And the pain of losing his father also allowed Wang Long to understand the world in a new way.
In the days that followed, he gradually adjusted himself to the loss of his father and the grief that followed, and continued to return to his normal life: learning to buy groceries, cook and take care of his mother.
Three months later, Wang Long began to play football again. He felt that although his father was gone, he would now think of his father wherever he went.
The image of his father has always filled Wang Long's heart.
Wang Long is glad to have sent his father to the hospice ward, because it allowed his father to walk peacefully and dignified.
04
Dr. Kuroko Akira, 32, has sat at the bedside of more than 200 dying people for three years and accompanied them on the last journey of their lives.
However, at first, when he held the hands of the deceased and had a spiritual dialogue with them, he was unable to face the reality that they would soon die.
But later, dialogue with death has become a part of Kurokoaki's daily life.
Now he does not feel this as a burden, nor does he feel sadness, but sees it as an enlightenment of ideas, a joyful spark of hope.
When looking back at the past, Kuroko felt that the handshake and dialogue with the deceased were mysterious and holy. And as a companion, witness, comforter and settler, his heart will be washed and cleared.
Difficult moments are brought away with a smile, and good times are suddenly precious.
In this sense, the experience of saying goodbye to people in the course of life is a living life education lesson, not only teaching Kuroko to recognize the impermanence and irresistibility of death, but also teaching him to be alone when life is about to travel.
Perhaps the meaning of hospice care is to make the patient no longer feel pain in the process of hospice care; and protect their dignity; Let their relatives accept the fact that heaven and man are forever separated, and end the sorrow in their hearts in their own ways.
"It's also gratifying to be able to arrange the process of saying goodbye to the world for my patients." Hospice services have become a sacred and beautiful thing for Kuroko Akira.
At the end of medicine, the wisest thing for critically ill patients is to end the futile stylized rescue treatment aimed at "prolonging life".
Palliative care, which focuses on palliative care, will allow patients to live comfortably and with quality in the final stages of life.
05
On December 1, 2015, Wang Xuewen accompanied his mother for his 80th birthday.
For 5 years, Wang Xuewen waited for the spring outside the window, felt the cycle of the four seasons, and as death approached, the peaceful Wang Xuewen embraced every day left. He no longer worries about the future, but just concentrates on enjoying the present.
Before his sixth birthday, Wang Xuewen, like his patients, was relieved of his pain. As Zen masters often say to people, "I'm dying, this is my poem." ”
Life is precious, and perhaps by maintaining the awareness that life will end, we can better appreciate the fact of "being alive".
When you die, "there is no pain in the body, no concern in the heart, dignity in the human being, and no fear in the spirit", perhaps, this is the choice that is in the best interests of the deceased.
Author: Heart Covenant
Editor: Hajijutsu
Reference: China Documentary Network "The World" Episode 4 "Farewell" 2017-04-05