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Svein Viggo Norbeck is 67 years old and has been admitted to Akershus University Hospital for three months. On Sunday, he was transferred to the hospice unit – a place that provides palliative care to the very sick and dying like cancer patients with a serious life-limiting illness.
– Dad doesn’t have long to live. Therefore, we will sit with him in the last time we are together. This summer he was diagnosed with several tumors in his kidney and lungs when he was examined at Radiumhospitalet, says Robert Norbeck.
The case was first mentioned in VG.
Robert is one of Svein’s four children. Together with the Kenneth brothers, Robert and Marius, he has been alternating between visiting his father at the Lørenskog hospital.
– We would like to visit our father together, but the hospital management does not agree. We have been in long negotiations today, Robert tells NRK.
Different rules
The coronary pandemic has led to limited visiting hours, as well as restrictions on the number of people who can enter patient rooms. In recent months, the Norbeck family has encountered several different rules.
In the blood diseases ward, visiting hours were from 1 to 3 pm and from 6 to 8 pm. A maximum of two visitors could come each day. Urologically, the visitation time was 18-19, but all four were also allowed to leave outside this time period, two at a time.
The rules of the hospice unit where the father now resides is that only three of the four siblings can visit. Selecting a sibling from visitor lists is an impossible task, says Kenneth.
– Three pieces manage to join a list and enter. Unfortunately there are four of us, so that means you have to stay outside, says Kenneth.
– It’s depressing for us, of course, but not least for Dad who wants to spend the last time with all his children, says Robert.
Can make one last change
Robert and Kenneth have been among the three who visited their father recently. Now they have the opportunity to make one last rotation on the visitor list.
This means that one of the brothers who has not been allowed to enter can be included in the list, in exchange for another one of them being eliminated.
– We can make a change during the remaining time. If we do it today, it is what matters the rest of the time. The day Dad dies, one of us stands at the window. It’s absolutely terrible, says Kenneth.
They haven’t decided how to solve the solitaire. But the choice must be made soon. For them to present their story is in an attempt to get help, says Robert.
– Also, of course, it’s to help other families. We have already received messages from several who are in the same situation. If it doesn’t help us, then maybe it will help someone else.
– Visiting rules for this post were introduced.
The brothers want to emphasize that the hospital and those who work there have done a fantastic job caring for the 67-year-old father. Both the treatment and the follow-up have been flawless, they believe.
– Nurses line up in every possible way. Everything else is really cool except the part where we can’t visit him and be together with him, says Robert.
Anne Karin Lindahl, Director of the Division of Surgery at Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), responds to the family’s story as follows:
– To prevent the spread of infection in the hospital, visiting rules have been introduced for palliative care, in accordance with the visiting rules in the hospital. General visiting rules allow one or two visitors per day.
She says it is open to exceptions when patients are seriously ill or have a limited time to live. In palliative care, most patients find themselves in this situation. She believes that it is very difficult for the hospital to make important exceptions to the visiting rules.
Strict visiting rules have been introduced to protect very sick patients, and if we become infected in our ward, we must shut down completely.
– We have a strong understanding that this is experienced as difficult and frustrating for the individual family, and we try to facilitate it to the extent we deem it justifiable. In this case, three of the children have been given permission to be present with their father, with the opportunity to make a change once, says principal Lindahl.
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– If they have been out of Norway, then we don’t want them in the hospital.
