When Chris and Gail Laux learned their daughter, Samantha, had only years to live at the age of 15, their lives would forever change.
Samantha was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), which resulted in tumors on her nervous tissue. During the course of less than a decade, these tumors would result in deafness, blindness and would confine her to a wheelchair. Ultimately, NF2 would take her life at age 23.
After 18 months of constant hospital visits and consultations, Samantha made the difficult decision to spend her remaining years not confined to a hospital bed, but with her family and friends. After graduating high school and attending Wright State University for two and a half years, Samantha spent her final year at home.
After she had been at home for about six months, a family friend recommended that Samantha and her parents take advantage of services through Hospice of North Central Ohio (HNCO).
“We thought we had more time, and hearing that we might be ready for hospice care for Samantha shocked us,” Chris Laux said. “It seemed too soon.”
While this news was shocking for them, they soon learned that the appropriate time to reach out to hospice is when an individual has a life expectancy of six months – sooner than people usually think. They emphasized that when families finally consider contacting hospice, they often have waited too long to experience the full range of services that hospice can provide.
The Laux family said that because they contacted Hospice of North Central Ohio early, the organization was able to take care of so many steps in their difficult process they would never have considered.
Gail joked that hospice may have been the only thing Sam ever failed in her life, because she couldn’t imagine anyone using their services for six months. She once asked a nurse if they should stop using the program until she really needed it. The nurse told her no, and that being involved early in the process meant that as soon as the family additional help, like medical paperwork or oxygen, they would have it immediately.
She was right. Hospice of North Central Ohio navigated insurance and took care of the entire family so Sam was able to remain in her home as she wanted.
The most beneficial thing the family believes HNCO gave them during this time was peace of mind.
“We knew they were taking care of everything,” Gail said. “If we needed something for Sam, we knew we would have it within hours. They also helped us with understanding the stages Sam was going through, and they anticipated our emotions and needs all along the way.”
The Laux family believe they are like many that didn’t fully understand the services hospice provided until they needed them.
Hospice of North Central Ohio offers palliative care, hospice care and bereavement services.
The Laux family used hospice care in their home. They did not use the bereavement counseling services because they are very active members of their church and had an incredibly supportive community who helped them process their grief.
Still, Gail said that HNCO reached out to them every once in a while to check in after Sam had passed. They sent several brochures that the family used to understand and process their grief even though they did not use direct counseling.
When a family considers hospice services, it may seem like the very end stages of their loved one’s life. That’s what the Laux family thought as well–until they used hospice care.
“When someone hears it’s time to call hospice, they think it’s the end,” Gail said. “But calling hospice doesn’t mean your good times with your loved one are over. Yes, it is managing the end of life. But mostly, admission into hospice care means gaining that peace of mind so that you can have more good times.”
The Laux family lost a daughter and sister at an incredibly young age, and no matter what, that process would always be unimaginably difficult. What Hospice of North Central Ohio gave to them was care and services that made this process easier and gave Sam a higher quality of life.
“We knew she would have someone there for her, and we knew we would have someone there for us,” Chris said. “Knowing you’ve got somebody can be the biggest thing.”
