http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_596_Bedside_Comfort.mp3 Sandra Clarke decided no one should have to die alone in a hospital, so she created a program bringing hospital staff - including maintenance workers and technicians - to the bedsides of dying patients. Plone 2.0 http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_596_Bedside_Comfort.mp3/logo.jpg http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_596_Bedside_Comfort.mp3 <h4>Bedside Comfort</h4><p class="imageleft"><img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/6fe3812a4d6b57b1878f208d6fc34076" alt="Sandra Del Jim" height="315" width="115" />Sandra Clarke, Del Townley, and Jim Clark</p><p>Every day, patients die alone in hospitals without family or medical staff to comfort them. Nurse Sandra Clarke decided to do something about this. She once had a dying patient who asked her to stay with him but she couldn't. When she returned to the room, he was dead. <br /></p><p>Sandra talks to Dick Gordon about how she turned her guilt into a hospital vigil program - and how she convinced her co-workers to volunteer between shifts so patients wouldn't die alone.</p><p>Del Townley and Jim Clark also join the conversation. They are hospital maintenance workers who will sit at the bedsides of dying patients. They tell Dick why they joined the program and what keeps them volunteering.<br /></p><ul><li><p>Learn more about Sandra's vigil program, <a href="http://www.peacehealth.org/Oregon/NoOneDiesAlone.htm" target="_self">No One Dies Alone</a></p></li><li><a href="http://www.peacehealth.org/Oregon/PDFiles/NODA_GuideOrderForm.pdf" target="_self">Start</a> a No One Dies Alone program<br /></li><li><p>See <a title="No One Dies Alone" href="resolveuid/2ee098a246ac055ffce6b286dadc2ebd" target="_self">photos</a> of Sandra and her volunteers</p></li></ul><i>Music in this story: "Bedside of a Neighbor," Dixie Hummingbirds, The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds </i><br /><a class="addbtn" href="http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/user/form_display.php?form_code=608cc948ba9b" target="_self">Contact Us</a><br /><h4>WHAT ARE THE ODDS?<br /></h4><p class="imageleft"><img class="image-left" src="resolveuid/f6662a44d8522ed5975db83cf7853680" alt="Jen and Dad" height="100" width="100" />Jen Schuemelfeder and her dad - <a title="Jen and Dad large" href="resolveuid/e219a87e66c9b574ba618cbdbfce1b9c" target="_self">larger &gt;&gt;</a><br /></p><p>In the summer of 2000, Jen Schuemelfeder had just come home from work and was eating lunch when she heard the doorbell ring. It was a little girl from down the street who said that a tree had fallen in their yard - and that there was a man under the tree who looked like Jen's dad. Jen talks to Dick about what it was like to see her father go through the ordeal, and how watching his determination and her mother's devotion to him changed her life.</p><a class="addbtn" href="http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/user/form_display.php?form_code=608cc948ba9b" target="_self">Contact Us</a><p></p> Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:00:00