All the man wanted to do was drink a glass of cold white wine, smoke a cigarette, and watch the sun set. For many of us, these are everyday pleasures too easily taken for granted. For Carsten Hansen, 75, it was his dying wish.
Hansen was admitted to a hospital in Denmark in early April after suffering a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm is long and complicated, and often requires a hospital stay for several days after the procedure.
Hansen was too ill and frail for the surgery, and without it, he would likely not survive more than a few hours due to the internal bleeding caused by an aneurysm. Sitting in his hospital room with no more than a few hours to live, Hansen told his nurses that he wished to enjoy his final minutes with a glass of cold white wine, a cigarette, and a view of the setting sun.
The nurses were able to find white wine, and Hansen’s room was luckily on a floor with access to a balcony. It was the cigarette that proved a problem, however. The hospital where Hensen was staying had a strict no-smoking policy to ensure the health and well-being of its patients, but Hensen’s nurse Rikki Kvist decided this rule was OK to break.
And so they wheeled Hansen out to the balcony with his glass of cold white wine, lit him a cigarette, and allowed him a few quiet moments to enjoy his final, beautiful sunset with his family.
“It was a very cozy and relaxed atmosphere,” Kvist told The Telegraph. “Of course they were relatives also affected by the fact that he was going to die, and they were sad. But it was cozy and there was humor.”
The nurses shared their experience in a Facebook post, where the outpouring of love and admiration for the nurse’s deed was overwhelming.
“Exactly as it should be, wish I could have done this for my dad, good on his family and respect to the hospital staff for showing humanity,” wrote one user.
“You’re not only a hospital but a place where people can still dream, even if the life won’t give them any more opportunities,” said another.
“In these times where sometimes humanity seems to fade away, posts like these keep the fire burning. I wish the family of Mr. Hansen all the best in these difficult times,” offered a third.
Having enjoyed his dying wish, Hansen peacefully passed away April 28.
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