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NEWS TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
COMMUNITY
Hospice provides comfort, support at end of life
Program seeks to improve overall quality of life for terminal patients
BY ALEESE KOPF
akopf@kansan.com
Three mornings a week Kelsey Crawford starts her day in the company of an 89-year-old woman with short white hair. As she enters the home of the woman, she sees her sitting comfortably with a blanket snuggle wrapped around her body. Her head barely reaches the height of the chair that Crawford normally finds her in. The woman looks away from the television and greets Crawford with a warm smile. Crawford can think of no better start to her day.
Kelsey Crawford reads to 89-year-old Hospice patient Norma Elliott. Crawford is one of 22 volunteers who work with Heart of America Hospice, which provides care to terminally ill patients in the area.
Crawford, a freshman from Beloit, donates a few hours of her time a week as a hospice volunteer. Whether it's reading a book, watching television, taking walks outside or just having a simple conversation, Crawford does what she can to bring a few hours of joy to the patients she serves.
Patients enter hospice when they have a terminal illness and are given a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice benefits include nursing care, social and spiritual care, bathing and grooming. Both staff members and volunteers can provide these benefits, but regardless
W h e n Crawford serves as a volunteer for 89-year-old Norma Elliott,
"With Norma I feel more like a granddaughter," Crawford said. "It's not like 'Oh I have to go volunteer.' It's 'I get to go volunteer.'"
Crawford is one of 22 volunteers with Heart of America Hospice, 1420 Wakarusa Drive, that assist patients in the Lawrence area. Twenty of the volunteers are KU students. The organization serves between 35 and 50 patients in Lawrence and the surrounding areas.
Kristin Roth, volunteer coordinator for the organization, said the patients enjoy talking with the students. She said having someone visit regularly was very special and students made a bigger difference than they might think. Those few hours a week reading or sharing a conversation with patients can make them feel appreciated and more animated in what can be a lonely and depressing stage of their lives.
"Our volunteers make a huge impact on a patient's quality of life." Roth said. "Volunteers come away from a hospice experience knowing that they were a bright spot in a difficult time for a patient and their family."
Roth said some of the organi-
"Our volunteers make a huge impact on a patient's quality of life."
KRISTIN ROTH
Hospice volunteer coordinator
she isn't just logging volunteer hours. She wants to make a difference by brightening someone's day. For Crawford, Norma is much more than a patient.
zation's volunteers know very little about hospice before volunteering, while others have had loved ones in hospice care. She said it has not been difficult to recruit students although some students might be nervous about entering an unfamiliar situation.
Kelsey Nowak, a freshman from Stillwater, Okla., used personal experience as her inspiration. Nowak
decided to volunteer with hospice last fall after witnessing a hospice team work with her grandmother, who had horrible migraines her entire life that later led to strokes. Her grandmother was never diagnosed, but upon receiving hospice care she was expected to live just six months. With the assistance of hospice, she lived a year longer, passing away in 2008.
Following that experience, Nowak routinely visits a nursing home, strumming out Peter Paul and Mary tunes on her guitar. The 1960s folk trio is a favorite of her patient William who is in his mid 70s.
that just makes my day."
"I love the look on his face when I play a song he likes," Nowak said. "Even though he doesn't speak much, his eyes speak for him, and
While Crawford had equally rewarding experiences, she has learned just as much from the
challenges that a accompany hospice care. Of Crawford's three patients, she still volunteers with two — the third passed away two weeks into her service.
F o r
Crawford, the
death was sad.
knows that — but she's found ways to cope.
but it's an inevitable reality she knew before deciding to volunteer with hospice. She knows their time together is limited.
"just knowing it will be another day, and hopefully a better day, is
Bad days will come — Crawford
"Just knowing it will be another day, and hopefully a better day is comforting."
KELSEY CRAWFORD Hospice volunteer
comforting. Crawford said.
can already say she has grown as an individual. She has learned to appreciate life, not to take anything for granted and that simple acts of kindness can go a long way.
Even with the more difficult days, Crawford said the benefits of the experience far outweigh the challenges. Just in her first few months of volunteering, Crawford
She has also learned the effect she has made on the patients. Crawford said Norma is not much for words but simply saying "Thank you" and "OK," or sometimes the more playful "Whatever you say," are enough to know she is appreciated. Volunteering with hospice takes about 30 minutes of her week, but it's those 30 minutes that make a difference for people who are lonely and sick.
The simple but meaningful conversations Crawford enjoys with Norma are what bring her back week after week.
"If it means sleeping 30 minutes less a week and bringing a little bit more joy to someone else's life, it's worth it," Crawford said.
Edited by Becky Howlett
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NATIONAL
Federal judge releases group facing conspiracy charges
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — Nine members of a Michigan militia will be released from jail pending trial after a federal judge on Monday harshly criticized the government's claim they had conspired to overthrow the U.S.government.
The decision is a significant defeat for federal authorities, who spoke in tough and triumphant terms after arresting members of a southern Michigan group called the Hutaree in March and charging them with conspiracy to commit sedition and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.
The government "need not wait until people are killed before it arrests conspirators." U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said. "But the defendants are also correct: Their right to engage in hate-filled, venomous speech is a right that deserves First Amendment protection."
While Roberts ruled only whether to keep the eight men and one woman in jail until trial, her decision — reached after nearly 10 hours of hearings and detailed in 36 pages — offers an early look at her thoughts on the strength of the government's case.
In court papers and testimony before Roberts, prosecutors and
an FBI agent claimed the Hutaree are violent, antigovernment zealots who plotted to kill police officers in an effort to spark an uprising that would take down the federal gov-
U. S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, who said it was time to "take them down" when the militia members were indicted, say her office will ask the judge to freeze the release order until prosecutors can talk to the U.S. Justice Department about a possible appeal.
Observers cautioned that McQuade and her team should be more worried about Roberts' assessment of their case.
and other processing Tuesday
ernment. Instead, the judge said the rambling, scornful recorded conversations offered as evidence didn't prove the group poses an imminent threat.
custody can be released until trial under strict conditions, including electronic monitoring. They won't actually be freed until they return to court for paperwork
"Their right to engage in hate-filled venomous speech is a right that deserves First Amendment protection."
law enforcement officers — and even discussions about killing members of the judicial branch of government — do not translate to conspiring to overthrow, or levy war against, the United States government," Roberts said.
"The feds are in big trouble," said Lloyd Meyer of Chicago, a former terrorism prosecutor who won decades-long prison sentences
She said the nine defendants in
"Discussions about killing local
VICTORIA ROBERTS U.S. District Judge
"[The government] need not wait until people are killed before it arrests conspirators."
against violent militia members in western and northern Michigan. "If they can't persuade the judge by clear and convincing evidence that the defendants are dangerous, how can they convince 12 jurors
VICTORIA ROBERTS U.S. District Judge
The group, based in Lenawee
beyond a reasonable doubt? Her ruling looks like the feds are prosecuting U.S. citizens for jibberiabber."
County near the Michigan-Ohioborder, is led by David Stone, 44, of Clayton, Mich. The other defendants include his wife, Tina Stone and two sons, David Stone Jr. and Joshua Stone.
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During two days of hearings before Roberts last week, prosecutors tried to show how dangerous they perceived the Hutaree militia to be. The evidence included a recording made by an undercover agent of David Stone and oth-
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ers talking about killing police.
The judge wasn't impressed: "This so-called speech — never delivered outside the van — speaks of reclaiming America, not overthrowing the United States government," Roberts said.
But no specific names or dates were disclosed, and some conversations were sprinkled with laughs and a mix of subjects, including strippers and drawing Hitler mustaches on photos of state troopers.
In a separate talk inside a van on a trip to Kentucky, the elder Stone was recorded saying "it's time to strike and take our nation back so that we may be free again from tyranny"
Prosecutors were stung when an FBI agent who testified at the demand of defense lawyers said she couldn't reveal much because she hadn't lately reviewed investigative reports.
Roberts said Monday that prosecutors failed to rebut the defendants' position that the Hutaree's "live-fire training" amounted to shooting at dirt mounds on private property twice a year. With just a few exceptions, all weapons and ammunition seized by agents were legal, the judge said.
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