New Year… The day mainly for children, who will wake up very early in the morning and run straight to the Christmas tree to see what Santa left for them under it. But there are also these children, who luck and fate brought them in such a way that they are not at home, but are in a hospital bed and are fighting their own battle in life, with their parents by their side , who try to make their own child feel joy and happiness during these festive days, by giving them some gifts. But in the back of their minds, of course, the greatest gift is that next New Year will find them all happy together under the Christmas tree at home.
Three children are currently in the Pediatric Oncology Department of Makarios Hospital. Three children, who are no different from the rest of the world's children. And these counted down to Christmas, but also to the New Year, when Santa Claus will come, to bring them the gifts they expected during the year. Parents, as well as medical staff, did everything again this year to ensure that these children don't miss anything and live as they want, even during these festive days, with the hope that they will soon return home in good health.
In total, there are twelve children today visiting the Pediatric Oncology Department for treatments and three children who are hospitalized and spent New Year's Eve there, along with their families and staff. A staff, who also give their own fight every day, so that nothing is missing from these children, apart from the care and relief they offer.
In fact, for the nurses themselves, everyday life at the Pediatric Oncology Hospital of Makarios has become a way of life. “We know that on some holidays we will be here and offer,” he told REPORTER the head of the Pediatric Oncology Clinic, Androula Papavasileiou. “Sure, everyone who works would like to be with their own people, but at the same time it was a choice of ours to follow a profession that offers and a profession that you are absent from his home during these festive days. For several years now, seeing the real problems, we give some other values to life and put other priorities and say that the problems are different and not a Christmas day”.
The profession of a pediatric nurse is not a profession where you do your job and just leave. “It's a different school. We don't close for the holidays and we don't take a break either. We prioritize and have other values, in a school that delivers life lessons. Seeing the parents how they face all this Golgotha with a dignity and a patience, they don't care why they are not at home during these festive days, but their goal is that their baby will be well. It's kind of selfish to think personally why I'm not at a Christmas table on New Year's Eve. There are other values and other needs”.
Essentially, everyone at Paedogologico today is like a family, since they are together most of the time of their daily life. “Even the parents themselves, because they are constantly here, give other values and that image that has been around lately for hospitals is collapsing. At the beginning you see the parents coming in terrified and along the way you see that here we all become a family together and that we are all together, parents and medical nursing staff for these babies”.
The battle of cancer patients in Arodafnousa
At the same time, their own battle with cancer is fought by dozens of our fellow citizens, who are in Arodafnousa. A space, which is the only center of its kind in Cyprus, which offers comprehensive in-hospital palliative care services to cancer patients but also to their relatives. A space, which in no way resembles a hospital, but a natural space with a beautiful and green environment, where patients, who are fighting their own battle in life, can spend their time as painlessly as possible.
However, as indicated by the center's communications and public relations manager, Nikoletta Athanasiadou, “when one of our fellow human beings falls ill, the holidays are more difficult because he cannot be at home with his loved ones and do the things he used to during the holidays. However, here at Arodafnousa we try in every way to offer the right services in an environment that will make our patients as comfortable as possible during these festive days and be able to ease the pain resulting from their clinical condition”.
The medical staff of Arodafnousa, during the holidays, remains committed to the task and the ultimate goal is, “to continue to offer support and care that our fellow cancer sufferers need. We all work together as a team to bring that relief to the pain, both of body and soul that a patient may face these days and beyond. Work continues like any other day, it's just that during the holidays we try to be even more close to our patients, with the goal that they don't feel alone and don't feel that they are deprived of their own space during these holidays”.
Undoubtedly, such days are not easy for the patients themselves, as what they are looking for is to be at home and with their families. “Unfortunately, the people who are in Arodafnousa are people who need this care that they cannot have at home. Therefore, both the patients themselves and their relatives recognize that they are in good hands here. That's why we do the best we can in a comfortable environment where care, affection and coziness prevail, elements that are certainly not only present now that the holidays are here, but all year round”.
