Hello I am Yasumasa Takahashi, the director of Meddy Home Care Clinic.
We are dedicated to 24 hour home palliative care, and always support patients and their families.
Why does it have to be 24 hour home palliative care ?
I would explain the reason below, so please take a look;
My determination
It happened when I was a second grade elementary student.
One of my classmates had an injured leg, and was dragging the leg.
One day, other kids picked on her saying “Your way of walking is weird!”.
I said “Stop it!”
And, I felt an emotion that I had never had, and stood in front of the group of the bullies.
I found myself struggling to defend her,
and at that moment, I thought
“This is wrong. I want to protect sick people, OK, I am going to be a doctor!”
That was a great decision I made as a child.
Since then, I stopped watching TV which I used to love.
“I will be a doctor no matter what happens”
The feeling got stronger day by day, and I finally got a medical license.
I will be a surgeon!
18 years after the incident, when I was a second year medical intern, I was deciding my specialty.
I thought “I want to save as many patients as possible as a doctor”.
Since I became a medical intern, I began to feel the responsibility as a doctor, and eventually decided to be a surgeon to provide various treatments such as surgery and anticancer drug treatment.
A parent and her child I can never forget
I was taking care of a single parent in her forties with breast cancer.
Although I did my best, she passed away due to the cancer.
She didn’t have a husband, her children who were left behind looked very sad.
I will never forget the scene for the rest of my life.
Then I decide to devote myself to supporting cancer patients and their families.
I thought “I want to stay together with patients to fight against cancer, and help them live happy lives. I will relieve their pain and stay close to them when they feel sad and lonely.”
This is how I started “palliative care” which actively relieves cancer pain and anxiety.
What patients need now is…
I started to work as a surgeon of Sekishinkai Kawasaki Saiwai Hospital in 2005. While I was in charge of advanced laparoscopic surgery for digestive system cancer, and surgery and anticancer drug treatment for breast cancer, I established Kawasaki Saiwai Hospital Palliative Care Team to support cancer patients in 2008.
I worked as palliative care team leader for 5 years, and treated physical and psychological pains of more than 400 patients.
During the 5 years of experience, the hardest moment was when the patients said “I want to go home”.
I realized patients are not given safe living environments at their homes in general.
From now, hospitals and house call doctors will have to collaborate to support patients and their families. And so, I thought it was necessary to establish a home care clinic which provides the same level of palliative care as hospital care.
I will realize ideal home care!
Cancer patients have various problems to be solved, such as physical and psychological pains.
You might suffer from side effects of cancer treatment, and if cancer advances your doctors might say “Go to another hospital because there is no possible treatment”.
You would be very sad to know you got cancer, and if your doctor says such a thing, you wouldn’t believe people anymore.
After seeing the situations of cancer patients, I thought, “I want to keep supporting patients with cancer progressing even after surgery and treatment”, “ I want to support them not only in hospitals, but also at homes to make them smile under any circumstance”. And this feeling got stronger day by day.
And I finally decided to establish Home Palliative Care Clinic!.
You can contact us any time, and we can visit your home when you feel uneasy.
If you want to switch to hospital care for some reason, we would meet your request quickly.
If you want to leave the hospital, we would make an arrangement quickly.
We will support you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The strong feeling for patients I’ve had since when I saw the girl who was dragging her leg,now drives me to realize “ideal home care”.
People should live happily with a smile.
We can provide palliative care at the same medical standard as hospital care, which makes you smile all the time.
Leave it to us.
Meddy Home Care Clinic, director of hospital, Yasumasa Takahashi
