Terri Schiavo’s death Wednesday — after the nation waited following her feeding tube removal — “really hit home” for hospice volunteer Sadie McCallister.
In her volunteer work, McCallister spends time every week with a patient at Grenadines Hospice in Denham Springs, who — like Schiavo was for the past 13 days — is near death.
“The whole point of hospice is to make you comfortable,” said McCallister, a biological sciences freshman. “They usually try to make it as easy as possible.”
Starving to death does not sound comfortable or easy, McCallister said.
Schiavo, who has gained worldwide media attention as a result of a bitter custody battle between her husband and her parents, died Wednesday after 15 years in a vegetative state. She was 41.
Her feeding tube was removed 13 days ago, following a court order granted to her husband, Michael Schiavo.
The vegetative state resulted from Schiavo collapsing from heart failure brought on by a potassium deficiency when she was 26 years old.
The nation has been divided over the Schiavo case. Because Schiavo was breathing on her own, many have said it is cruel to simply let her starve to death. Countless people held vigils for her outside her hospital.
Schiavo’s husband claimed that she told him she would not want to be resuscitated if there was no hope for recovery. Because Schiva had no living will, her husband had no proof of his claim.
McCallister said she thinks Schiavo’s affects her differently because of her volunteer work, and she is sad that people argued about Schiavo’s life and death.
If Schiavo did not want to be resuscitated, McCallister said, she should have been allowed to die the way she wanted to.
“When you’re ready to go, sometimes it’s just time,” McCallister said.
But she said she was uncomfortable with the thought of Schiavo basically starving to death.
McCallister’s perspective was also influenced by her grandmother’s stay in a hospice. She began volunteering after her grandmother passed away in hospice, McCallister said.
“When my grandmother was in hospice, she would respond and squeeze my hand,” McCallister said. “I knew she was listening. The dying are people too.”
McCallister’s first companion passed away shortly after she began volunteering at Generations Hospice, McCallister said. She is now working with a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.
“I just go hang out with her once a week,” McCallister said. “It’s lonely there sometimes.”
McCallister also offered her own opinions about the hospice system.
“A lot of people think entering hospice means giving up, saying that you’re going to die,” McCallister said. “A lot of people have bad ideas about it.”
McCallister said she changed her mind about hospice when she visited her grandmother.
“It’s just a way of making everything more peaceful,” McCallister said.