Zahid Hussain was 60 years old and used to run a small spectacle shop in Lajpat Nagar. He was diagnosed with lung cancer which had progressed to stage IV. Cure was extremely improbable.

Even though Zahid was conscious of the prognosis and had accepted it, but deep down in his heart, he hadn’t quite given up hope for recovery.

“After all, miracles do happen,” he would say to himself.

Zahid along with his family lived in their own house, which Zahid had built with his hard-earned money. He had a total of four children, two sons and two daughters. The elder son plus both the daughters are happily married.

Zahid used to make just about enough money to somehow handle the family’s day-to-day expenses. His elder son is a diploma holder in engineering and had a good job, but he lost his job last year because of the pandemic.

After being diagnosed with cancer, Zahid started getting treated at AIIMS but when the cancer unavoidably advanced, his oncologist referred him to CanSupport. At the same time, his doctor also advised him to go for immunotherapy.

When Zahid was referred to CanSupport, he wondered what it meant. “Has my oncologist given up on me?” was his constant fear and thought.

Zahid’s physical symptoms included shortness of breath, fatigue, appetite issues and pain. All these symptoms put together disturbed his sleep. It also made him fidgety and affected his mobility. He was always feeling miserable and anxious. Death was always on his mind and he constantly worried about his family. He wanted his younger son to get married soon while he was alive.

CanSupport’s home care team went through his medical records thoroughly and put him on morphine along with some other medication to help him with his pain and breathing issues.

Dialogue and conversation with Zahid helped the team doctor figure that Zahid was cognizant of his deteriorating condition and conscience of what lay ahead for him, therefore he wanted to focus on his present and live his present well. He wanted a reprieve from pain and was happy that he could talk to someone about both his physical and emotional discomfort.

The family was perturbed that Zahid was losing weight because he had lost his appetite. The team nurse gave a detailed diet plan to the family to take care of his nutrition intake.

The team also shared their contact details with the family so that they could get in touch with them in case there was a necessity, or Zahid experienced any discomfort. It soothed the family to know that a team of doctor, nurse and counsellor was just a phone call away in case of an emergency and that they wouldn’t have to rush Zahid to the hospital.

After addressing his physical symptoms, the palliative care team wanted to unveil other issues troubling Zahid and his family. After a few counselling sessions with his caregiver, the team counsellor got to know that the family wanted to try immunotherapy once Zahid’s breathing became stable, as was proposed by the hospital. Although the family was aware that recovery was not a possibility, they still wanted to do all that they could. The team doctor explained to the family what immunotherapy is and how it works. He made the family consider Zahid’s condition, and asked the family if they really thought immunotherapy would help.

The family was again financially not in a condition to afford immunotherapy and was contemplating selling their house. The team expressed their respect and appreciation for the family’s readiness to go to any extent to treat Zahid, but they also felt it was important to protect the family from putting all their means at risk for an unsuccessful outcome based on just emotions and sentiments.

Zahid’s wife completely understood and agreed with the advice given by the counsellor, recognizing fully well that there was no hope or chance of healing.

Timely advice and counselling saved the family from living a life free of credit or financial burdens. Had they sold the house to afford immunotherapy for Zahid, nothing would have come out of that except for financial burden on the family for many years to come.

The team consistently visited Zahid to help him and his family live as comfortably and pain free as was possible. The team also encouraged the family to call Zahid’s daughters to visit him and spend some time with him so that they could talk to their father and share whatever was there on their mind and listen to their father express his thoughts and emotions.

Few days later Zahid passed away peacefully surrounded by his family after having spent the last few days of his life with people that mattered and loved him the most–his family.

When the team visited the family for bereavement support, they really appreciated the consistent support that they got from the team and for saving the family from selling their house.

After the demise of their father, both the brothers now run their father’s shop. “We are very grateful to the team for their supportive care,” says Zahid’s elder son.