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["...And the light is fading..." The experience of a child with terminal cancer]
1Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto-Universidade de São Paulo.
Insights
This study explores the emotional experiences of terminally ill children. Findings highlight their profound fears of death, loneliness, and separation, emphasizing the need for compassionate care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Palliative Care
- Psychology
- Thanatology
Background:
- Understanding the psychological impact of terminal illness on children is crucial for effective care.
- Phenomenological research offers a unique lens to explore subjective experiences of dying children.
Observation:
- Twelve terminally ill children participated in phenomenological attendances.
- Children expressed significant life events and intense emotions.
Findings:
- Children face death with a complex interplay of hope and despair.
- Key fears include dying, isolation, and separation from loved ones.
- The reality of their condition reactivates primal feelings of pain.
Implications:
- Healthcare providers must address the emotional and psychological needs of dying children.
- Supportive care should acknowledge and validate children's fears and feelings.
- Further research into therapeutic interventions for terminally ill children is warranted.
Abstract:
The child with a chance of dying faces death in a very peculiar way, because the hope that he or she managed to keep up to this moment changes with the impact of reality reactivating the first feelings of despair and pain for the separation of the loved ones. The main goal of this study is the attendance of a child in a terminal face, using as a path the phenomenological reference. Twelve attendances have been done with children in terminal faces, where they were able to express significant situations of their living process, and reveal with great intensity many fears, like the ones of dying, of being lonely, of leaving the ones they love, among others. Before this we see the necessity of worrying with matters interrelated to the feelings and emotions of these children who walk towards death, taking into consideration the possible means of help.
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