Help for people in their darkest hour

When Kaua’i Hospice learned of the drowning death Monday of a 33-year-old woman

visitor from Germany off Hanakapiai Beach, the organization jumped at the

chance to help her grief-stricken husband.

For two days, a staff member and

a volunteer called the man, who saw his wife, Christiane Limbach, drown. They

furnished information on the accident and accompanied the man to a Po’ipu

mortuary to prepare his wife’s body.

Hospice officials, meanwhile, worked

with U.S. Customs authorities to have the woman’s body shipped back to Germany.

The assistance highlights the support services that exist on Kaua’i for

people in their darkest hour.

Throughout the year, Kaua’i Hospice Society

and the American Red Cross branch help people cope with tragedies and terminal

illnesses.

Kaua’i County firefighters and police officers — those who

perform search missions, put out fires and investigate murder scenes — also

stand to gain from such support services.

But because full services are

not yet available, some officers and firefighters may suffer career burnout and

see their performance drop. The situation may end careers prematurely.

In

Monday’s drowning incident, the 10th off Kaua’i waters this year, the husband

of the victim didn’t want all the services that were offered to him, according

to hospice executive director Kathleen Boyle.

To enable him to have full

closure of the death, the hospice suggested he attend a bereavement service for

his wife at Wilcox Memorial Hospital, Boyle said. The organization received a

surprising response.

“He refused to come,” Boyle said. “He said, ‘I was

there, I saw it all, and I don’t need to do this.'”

The ceremony was to

have been a dignified one, Boyle said. Except for the face, most of the woman’s

body would have been covered with a sheet, Boyle said.

While she won’t

judge him, Boyle said it probably would have been better for the husband to

have gone to the service.

“Where he is now, he is going to remember her

dragged out to ocean, on her back, covered with sand, in a bathing suit, with

people pounding her chest, sticking tubes down her throat,” Boyle said. “That

is going to be the final picture of her.”

Such tragedies could have a heavy

psychological impact on investigating officers, said Rev. Jan Rudinoff, the

only chaplain for the Kaua’i Police.

“Cops are under tremendous stress,” he

said. “There is the risk of a discharge of a weapon, high speed chases,

accidents. All that stuff takes their toll.”

To get over such incidents,

officers need to “repeat the story so that they can get power over it,”

Rudinoff said.

More clergy don’t serve as police chaplains partly because

of a “high turnover at churches where they work,” and because they don’t have

the proper training to counsel police officers, Rudinoff said.

Rudinoff

works part-time as a chaplain and said more full-time ones are needed. But even

then, there is no guarantee officers would turn to them, Rudinoff

said.

Many officers don’t talk about what bothers them. The relief comes in

the form of “officers talking with other officers.” he said.

“Police

service is a high risk profession, and they don’t get enough support, period,”

Rudinoff said.

County firefighters get relief from job stress by using the

services of the hospice, the American Red Cross and police chaplains,

according to fire chief David Sproat.

It has only been in the past five

years that the department realized the importance of debriefing officers after

incidents and using counselors, Sproat said. The department wants to set up a

formal program for its firefighters and the public.

In the past, Kaua’i

residents have not used such services because they didn’t think they needed

them, Sproat said.

After Hurricane Iniki in 1992, “people picked up the

pieces and tried to move on,” Sproat said. “Kauai people are quite

resilient.”

The Red Cross offered counseling services after Iniki and

continues to do so on a smaller scale today, said Alfred Darling, branch

manager on Kaua’i.

“We offer stress relief,” he said. “The volunteers find

out what (the) needs are and then make referrals to other agencies.”

In

addition to counseling, Red Cross provided other types of support during two

incidents this year that shook the island community.

Following a shooting

spree last month that left one man dead and another man wounded in Hanama’ulu,

Red Cross teams helped feed police officers, firefighters and American Medical

Response paramedics who responded to the scene.

And in April, Red Cross

provided emergency supplies to more than a dozen hikers who had become stranded

in the Hanakapiai area on the Na Pali Coast after the flooding of the

Hanakapiai stream.

Darling said if Red Cross and the hospice respond to

the same tragedy, they divide up the responsibilities.

In 1983, the hospice

was formed as a non-profit group by doctors, nurses, social workers and

clergymen associated with Wilcox Memorial Hospital. For the next six years, the

hospice board provided volunteer services to the community, checked with people

with terminal illnesses, monitored their condition and gave medication, and

recruited volunteers.

In 1989, the operation of the hospice changed when

the board authorized the hiring of an executive director and trained

staff.

The organization’s key goals are to provide care for those with a

terminal illness and who no longer can benefit from medical care, and to help

surviving family members, Boyle said.

In serving the terminally ill, the

hospice helps keep patients comfortable and uses professionals who address the

medical, psychological and spiritual needs of the patient. The organization

also involves the terminally ill patients and family members in deciding the

best way to handle a patient’s death.

Services offered include:

l

Physician and nursing services.

l Medication for pain relief.

l Home

healthcare.

l Medical supplies and equipment.

l Counseling.

l

Physical, occupational and speech-language and dietary counseling.

l

Continuous care.

l Public education.

For the surviving family members,

the organization provides bereavement services. Except for that, all other

services are often covered by insurance, although payments rarely cover the

full cost of care. For additional funding for its operations, the hospice

receives grants and donations.

The public doesn’t always perceive the

hospice in the proper light, Boyle said.

“Some see us as the grim reaper,”

she said. “We aren’t angels. We are somewhere in between. I think we are a

very viable choice for any community when a person wants information about the

quality of care at the end of life.”

Staff writer Lester Chang can be

reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net