‘No One Dies Alone’ program trains volunteers to provide comfort in patients’ final hours

(Aging Untold) — Tammy Skubal spends her days on a cardiac unit, preparing rooms and organizing equipment, hoping the next person in the bed gets better and goes home. But some patients will never leave.

“I can’t picture somebody going through that by themselves. I just can’t,” Skubal said.

To help prevent that, Skubal volunteers for a program called No One Dies Alone, sitting with patients who are nearing the end of life and have no family or friends there.

Sam Cradduck, an Aging Untold expert who has helped train volunteers for the program, said this is a valuable end-of-life service.

“We help them understand the signs of passing, the transition signs, what the person’s going to go through, what they could go through, how to keep them comfortable… Important things, you know, swabbing a mouth, holding a hand,” Cradduck said.

The program was founded by Sandra Clarke after one of her patients had asked her to stay.

“By the time I got back to his room… I walked in there, and his arm was outstretched from the bed—and he had already died,” Clarke said.

She couldn’t be everywhere at once, so she helped create a volunteer model, making sure more people have someone beside them at the end.

“What the organization does is they fill in the gaps, when family isn’t there, when family and friends aren’t there, or when they’re trying to still get there. And, so it doesn’t matter why the person is alone at the end of the day. What matters is that we don’t want them to have to be alone,” Cradduck said.

“You can bring that much comfort… people are more caring than they give their self credit for, but knowing that you can give someone that comfort,” Skubal said.

For Skubal, it’s about being present in those final moments, to hold a hand and honor a life.