{"id":3719,"date":"2011-09-07T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=3719"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:54:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:54:09","slug":"we-need-multiple-samaritans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2011\/we-need-multiple-samaritans\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need Multiple Samaritans on Our Modern Jericho Roads"},"content":{"rendered":"

This session is available for purchase as a CD and DVD for use by individuals, families, deacons, and congregations to facilitate discussion of end-of-life decision making and ways to be supportive caregivers during times of illness.
\nClick here for the NOAC 2011 CD\/DVD order form<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Curtis W. Dubble was one of the two keynote speakers for the Wednesday morning session at NOAC. He is a retired pastor,having served as a minister for 53 years, and was Annual Conference moderator in 1990.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

It was a personal story, but also universal, providing road signs for a landscape without landmarks. When Dr. David E. Fuchs, MD,\u00a0and Curtis W. Dubble sat down together in comfortable chairs on the stage at Stuart Auditorium, they told the story of Anna Mary Forney Dubble\u2019s journey from heart failure through nursing care and finally to her passing. But they also told the story experienced by many in the audience, and many listened attentively, aware that there\u2019s no telling when they would need the same kind of help.<\/p>\n

That explains the title of the morning keynote session: \u201cUnexpected Travels in Healing Call for Multiple Samaritans on Modern Jericho Roads.\u201d You don\u2019t know when you will need help but it will require a lot of unexpected help.<\/p>\n

And grace.<\/p>\n

Prior to her open heart surgery in 1999, Anna Mary had\u00a0made her Advance Directive and shared it with her family. She clearly did not want heroic measures to be used to resuscitate her in that as yet unforeseen event,\u00a0having seen others close to her struggle with loss of identity and impairment.<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0heart surgery\u00a0involved the replacement of a valve, and after going home from the hospital she\u00a0ran into complications, including congestive heart\u00a0failure and a subsequent Code Blue while in intensive care. Her cardiac surgeon ignored her advance directives, to the family\u2019s frustration, and resuscitated her. The result was impaired brain function. Anna Mary slipped into a coma.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
David E. Fuchs, MD, who is the Dubble family docter, joined Curtis Dubble in telling the story of how the Dubble family cared for Curtis’ late wife Anna Mary following a debilitating heart attack.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

At this point Dr. Fuchs, who is the Dubble family doctor, as well as medical director of Brethren Village Retirement Community, and\u00a0a practicing physician in Lancaster, Pa.,\u00a0remarked that many cardiologists are rated according to percentages of patients who survive surgery for at least\u00a030 days. Because of\u00a0these statistics\u00a0some are reluctant to follow advanced directives that allow for the patient to die in case of catastrophic circumstances. In this case, the surgeon responded to concerns from the family by replying, in what they perceived was an arrogant fashion, that his job was to save people.<\/p>\n

But the Dubble family, in consultation with their church family and their physician, Dr. Fuchs, made the decision. Following a time of prayer,\u00a0Anna Mary\u00a0was removed from life support. Two days later a miracle seemed to have occurred, as she opened her eyes and told her doctor she was hungry.<\/p>\n

This was just the beginning of a journey filled with love, but also great difficulty. Anna Mary\u00a0had\u00a0survived, but with no short-term memory and\u00a0serious physical difficulties. Over the next four years,\u00a0she had weeks of physical therapy, leading to eight months of being able to live at home. During that time she was capable of some things, but there was great exhaustion for her husband and caregiver\u00a0Curtis. She also had a\u00a0problem of wandering that required alarms in the home.<\/p>\n

Eventually she was placed in the nursing care wing of the Brethren retirement center where the couple lived.\u00a0Fuchs emphasized that although guilt often accompanies the decision to move a loved one into nursing care, it actually is safer, healthier,\u00a0provides\u00a0a higher quality of caregiving, and provides relief for\u00a0the spouse, who is not always exhausted.<\/p>\n

Curtis recommended that families who\u00a0advocate for loved ones in longterm nursing care\u00a0recognize that confrontation with the staff\u00a0and expressing anger\u00a0will not improve the quality of care. Partnership and accommodation are necessary.\u00a0He also talked about the importance of redesigning what intimacy means for those whose spouses are in nursing care.<\/p>\n

As dementia increased so did Anna Mary’s falls and injuries. Ultimately, after Hospice took over her care, the moment came when Curtis said farewell for a final time. A reading from John 14:1-3 (“In my father\u2019s house are many dwelling places…”) reflected the hope and faith that the couple shared with their doctor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curtis W. Dubble and David E. Fuchs MD sat down together in front of NOAC on Wednesday morning to tell the touching and powerful story of the Dubble family’s experience as Curtis’ late wife Anna Mary suffered brain damage following a heart attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1259],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-3719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-noac"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12095,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}