We as a country will overcome the difficult issues we face only if decency and dignity are not sacrificed on the altar of anger.
Alan Howard
(Via E-Mail)
A Shining Light During A Difficult Ordeal
I wish to inform the public of a wonderful but little-known organization called Chayim Aruchim, a project of the Agudah.
Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude in New York hospitals is to convince families to withhold treatment for terminally ill or difficult-to-treat patients. Chayim Aruchim was a shining light in the darkness of the difficult ordeal my family and I just went through with my mother.
Rabbi Menachem Horowitz counseled and provided us with an in-house advocate at the hospital when the ICU staff was pressuring us not to reintubate my mother after only two weeks of being in the hospital, and again when they wanted to let her “feel comfortable” and discharge her to “pass away at home” instead of giving her the life-sustaining treatments she so desperately needed.
Then, at a later stage, when the hospital wanted to relocate her to a hospice-type facility, Rabbi Horowitz and others counseled us as to what our options were, what we should and should not say at the meeting, and the best facility (should it come to that) in which to place my mother.
Not wanting to leave any stone unturned, Rabbi Horowitz and others worked tirelessly for days to help us obtain my mother’s medical records (not an easy task) on CD form so we could get second opinions for treatment options. Then another member of the staff, Rabbi Ausch, read through my mother’s long medical record (more than a thousand pages), formulated a synopsis of her condition, and e-mailed it to various doctors around the country.
Afterward, he communicated back and forth between the doctors and my mother’s physician in an attempt to ascertain whether or not she had tried or was willing to try any and all possible treatments.
Rabbi Ausch was available 24/6 to answer any halachic questions that arose (and there were many!) in this delicate area of End of Life issues.
What impressed me most about Chayim Aruchim was that staff members reached out to me to follow up and see how things were going when they had not heard from me in a while. That’s a level of devotion rare in today’s world.
In short, I would like to publicly thank the people at Chayim Aruchim for the holy work they do. They gave support at a time when it was most needed and were a comforting presence when we felt most alone. May Hashem repay them with chayim aruchim ve-shanim tovos.
I am filled with great admiration and overflowing gratitude.
Susan Weissman
Passaic, NJ