Two Young Daughters Will See Mother In Palliative Care

A social media plea to allow two children to see their mother in palliative care at the Moncton Hospital has been answered.

Colleen Cail was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. “Colleen has stage 4. She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, and we were told Christmas eve that it has spread to her brain and the pain was uncontrollable. That is when we brought her in, and found out it had also spread to her spine,” Her sister Tina Baker told us.

She has four children,  but due to COVID-19 restrictions, her youngest daughters have only seen their mom once since she was admitted to hospital after Christmas.

“She has two younger children under the age of 12, and that is nine and 11, Chayce and Reyce are their names. Then she has an 18- year-old, Alyce and 20-year-old Bryce,” Baker says.

She says she was told by Horizon Health that visitors under 12 were not permitted, but in an email, the Health Network told us there were no age restrictions.

Baker says it was important for them to see their mother because time is running out, “Some days are good, some days are bad, but in saying that right now there isn’t a lot of time left. I don’t know if we are talking days, I don’t know if we are talking hours, I can’t say for sure. We have to get in now before she is unresponsive. She needs and wants to be able to say good-bye.”

In a statement, VP of Clinical Services for Horizon Health Geri Geldart told us, “Balancing our heartfelt desire to provide compassionate care and support in such challenging times with the very real threat of introducing COVID-19 into our hospitals is a daily challenge for our staff. We try, every day, to find the right balance. We very much understand the hardship this creates for our patients and their families and work with each family to find solutions which, although not perfect, can help them stay connected with their loved ones. Visitor restrictions are in place during the Red Phase, however, palliative care patients are permitted to have one healthy visitor at a time. Although the list of individuals who are permitted to visit is limited, exceptions are often made for compassionate reasons. Horizon has approved requests from this family for additional visitors, including children.”

Cail’s daughters were permitted to see their mom last night, and there will be more visits going forward.

Baker says, “We attempted at one point to bring her(Cail) home and that way she could see her family, but her doctors advised that we don’t bring her home. She needs too much attention when it comes to pain meds, and we may not be able to make her comfortable there.”

A GoFundMe page has also been set up to support the family.