Broward Health

In the winter of 2008, a terminally ill, down and out homeless man named Kevin was admitted to Broward General Medical Center.

Kevin, who was just 38 years old, received critical medical care at the hospital for his ravaging illness. Remarkably, his condition stabilized and he was transferred to Broward General’s hospice unit for end of life treatment, which typically lasts up to six months.

With around-the-clock nursing care, Kevin’s condition improved, and soon he could be transferred out of the hospice unit. Gold Coast searched for a place where he would enjoy a better quality of life during his last months. “We didn’t want him to be just lying in a hospital bed,” said Betty Maljean, supervisor at Broward Health Gold Coast Home Health and Hospice Services. “He was still relatively young and doing well, despite his illness.”

Quality of Life

At Gold Coast Home Health and Hospice Services, Kevin received not only quality healthcare, but a markedly improved quality of life. Stephen Plescia, a social worker with Gold Coast, made sure Kevin got his own clothing, toiletries, glasses, food and gifts - including a t-shirt Plescia picked up in Key West that read ‘Kevin’s Irish Bar.’

Kevin also received a wealth of critical services from Gold Coast staff that guaranteed him continuing medical and nursing care. Staff helped with the completion of his Medicaid application, as well as ensuring nursing home placement, nursing and pain symptoms management, continuous care nursing, personal hygiene, and weekly visits from Plescia and Gold Coast Chaplain Lyn Triska.

“You have to remember that we operate almost solely on donations and most of the items our patients receive are donations, or gifts from our own staff,” said Lynda Friedman, administrator of Gold Coast, adding that Gold Coast cares for “everyone and anyone, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Tough Beginnings

Kevin came to Fort Lauderdale with his brother Michael when they were barely out of their teens, alone and homeless. Their lives started rough; their mother died when they were young and they spent their childhood with an abusive father. Once old enough, the boys ran away hoping for a better life in the sunshine and balmy breezes. But, with little education and no money, that sunny future never materialized. They spent their adult lives as part of a homeless community based under the I-95 overpass at Broward Boulevard.

Kevin once mentioned to Plescia that he had an older brother named Michael who he had not seen in years. Kevin longed to see Michael before he died, but had no way of contacting him.

Word traveled throughout the homeless community and finally reached Broward Health’s respite care coordinator for the homeless, Julie Solomon, who had worked with Michael.
 
Saying Goodbye

Broward Health Community Health Services employees Julie Solomon, Respite Care Coordinator for the Homeless, and Stephen Plescia, Medical Social Worker, Gold Coast Home Health & Hospice Services.

On Jan. 29, 2009, Solomon volunteered to take Michael to visit Kevin. “Michael stayed at his brother’s side for 45 minutes,” Solomon said. “When he returned to the van, he was visibly upset thinking his brother had only days to live, yet glad that he had the chance to say his final goodbye.” Kevin clung onto life for a few more months before dying on June 7.

Just one week later, Plescia took a call from Broward General Medical Center’s hospice unit about a patient who was admitted on May 15 unconscious, suffering from a traumatic head injury. “When I arrived at the unit I looked at the patient’s name and saw it was the same surname of Kevin’s,” Plescia said. “Here was [Kevin’s brother] in front of me, severely hurt and unconscious.”

Michael never regained consciousness and was placed in Gold Coast Hospice from June 16 until his death on June 21 - two weeks after his brother’s death. “It was such strange coincidence,” Plescia said. “We tried to locate relatives, but no one was ever found.” After waiting the requisite 120 days, the brothers were cremated.

Plescia then requested the remains from the Broward County Medical Examiner so he could make burial arrangements. “It was important to all of us here at Gold Coast that Kevin and Michael got a fitting farewell,” Plescia said. “Their lives were filled with poverty, illness and loneliness; now they can rest in peace together.”

Through the efforts of Gold Coast Home Health and Hospice Services, the brothers were buried in the same niche at Dignity Memorial’s Forest Lawn Central - just seven blocks from the overpass where they lived.

This team approach to care and the extra steps taken by Gold Coast staff helped Kevin and his brother transition seamlessly and eventually lay to rest in peace. 

Find more information at GoldCoastHealth.org.