(Seguin) — A woman’s decision to return home to care and be closer to her parents has led to the establishment of a whole new hospice care program for residents in the Seguin and surrounding area. Ana Ramirez-Cardosa, the executive director for Gifted Hearts Hospice in Seguin, shares more about the area’s newest hospice and palliative care program.
Ramirez-Cardosa, says while helping to open up a hospice program down South, she was befriended by a doctor who later sought her help to begin a hospice program of his own.
“Once the company was up and running, I decided to come back to Seguin to be closer to my parents and then the doctor always told me, one day, I’m going to open up my own hospice. I was like, okay. Before he opened up his own hospice, he opened up an ER and an urgent care in New Braunfels and then after that was up and running, he calls me just out of the blue and asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was still working for hospice. That is my passion. He said come talk to me, let’s talk about opening that hospice,” said Ramirez-Cardosa. “We kind of started doing our homework and saw that these small little towns that are rural areas were underserved and we said, let’s do it in Seguin,” said Ramirez-Cardosa.
That vision with Medical Director Dr. Cyril Owusu-Boakye ultimately led to the creation of Gifted Hearts Hospice. Although the pandemic has proved challenging, Ramirez-Cardosa says it has not stopped the business from rolling out the care that their patients and families deserve.
“We are one company, but we offer hospice and we offer the palliative care. It’s a program that we now have and of course, we are the one and only pro-life hospice in this area. The pro-life hospice is where we increase the quality of life as much as we can while they maintain their dignity and then provide the comfort and symptom control — just depending on what the patient is on hospice for. Say for instance, a patient has cancer and then all of sudden now, they have high blood pressure. Well, they come on the hospice for cancer but with high blood pressure, our doctor is going to say okay, well we need to give them some medication to control their blood pressure instead of just saying well the patient is on hospice. We try to prolong as much as we can as long as the patient is comfortable,” said Ramirez-Cardosa.
As the executive director, Ramirez-Cardosa says she also makes it her personal obligation to reach out to the family members and caretakers. She says they are just as important in this journey as anyone. She says the staff stands by its motto “Live Until You Leave.”
Since many hospice programs don’t stretch into the rural communities, Ramirez-Cardosa says she is proud that Gifted Hearts Hospice makes a commitment to serve those who need them.
“I love it for the reason that I know a lot of people here in these little, small towns and to know that we are here for them and to take care of them if they need hospice until the end of life,” said Ramirez-Cardosa.
Gifted Hearts is located at 1418 N. Austin St. Suite 12. The office can be reached by calling 830-715-9299.