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[quote=Anonymous]We had in home hospice.  I have heard many good things about Montgomery Hospice but I had a bad experience with them from the beginning.

My LO had a rare subtype of pancreatic cancer that was potentially curable but I wanted to prepare for the worst and while LO was in the hospital I privately made  a home appointment with Montgomery Hospice for a visit anyway.  I explained  that I wasn’t sure it was terminal yet and the lady who came gave me this knowing look like “yeah right” and was like “call us when you’re ready.”  Like vultures, after that visit every couple of weeks someone would call and ask if I was ready for their services yet.  I was like “uh look my LO is not dying right now; please don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

Well, treatment didn’t work out and eventually we needed their services.  My LO’s medical needs for comfort care were sadly high even in his last days but he was not in shape to transport to Casey House.  Their in-home services were minimal.  They loaned us a beat up old hospital bed and some other equipment.  Volunteers were not people with medical training.  Many times I called to ask a medical question and got routed to a chaplain, whom I had no interest in talking to since I’m not religious and who was a young guy and whom I didn’t think was well positioned to be advising senior citizens about dying.

When my LO was dying I called and over several hours they were too busy to send anyone.  I hadn’t realized how minimal their services were or that I’d have to be alone when LO passed with nothing much to ease his passing.  A nasty nurse named Helen did show up several hours later to declare my LO dead.  She was mean and snippy and mostly interested in how soon they could take their beat up loaner furniture back now that my LO was dead, presumably so the next person could die on it ASAP.  She kept saying that when my LO was “buried” (which is not our cultural tradition and I’d expect a hospice employee to be more aware of major world religions) and after the tenth time she said it I gently said “cremated” and she actually got annoyed and was like “whatever.”  She made a huge show of throwing out all the leftover morphine as though I were some kind of addict.

A few days later a bored-sounding bereavement counselor made what felt like a pro forma call asking if I was okay.  I wasn’t.  She said she’d send me some literature on grief.  She never did.  She said she’d call back in a few weeks and she didn’t do that either.  It was a fitting end to my interaction with  Montgomery Hospice and I was just as happy not to hear from them again.

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