Abstract

Aim: Subjective quality of life wishes are as important at end of life as throughout all of life. In occasional circumstances there is very little time remaining to achieve these wishes and may involve enormous effort by many to accommodate such wishes. Palliative care teams know the true value of this effort, but it is harder to expect other busy services to give up their time to achieve an exceptionally rewarding outcome for patients and their families. Methods: The case reports outlined in this paper hopefully will reflect the true value of extra efforts given by many teams to achieve a wish that lives on with families and truly should help in bereavement. In palliative care end of life wishes are paramount and exceptional circumstances tend live on in all our memories, including other service providers. Results: Therefore, if such a scenario is required in future cases, the response is more immediately positive and engaging. In many countries people live in very isolated, rural areas and getting home for end of life may seem an impossible dream. The west of Ireland has many such rural areas and beautiful small islands only reachable by boat or plane, therefore acquiring use of a helicopter can be invaluable. Conclusions: Use of necessary emergency services is not ideal, therefore thinking laterally of non-emergency services is preferable, patient and family wishes are achieved and there is no concern that other emergency victims are inconvenienced. The words of Dame Cecily Saunders1 so aptly confer the importance of team work to achieve what may initially seem impossible, ‘you matter because you are you and you matter all the days of your life.’

Keywords

palliative care, quality of life, end of life