Customer Reviews

Shelter From The Storm: Caring For A Child With A Life-threatening Condition

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then this book is for you. As the mother of a child with a life-threatening condition, it is easier to remain confident and optimistic knowing that I have a "plan B", meaning a plan of what to do if my child becomes terminal. This is a wonderful guide for parents, families and friends of a seriously ill child: answering tough questions about end-of-life issues without obliterating hope. Written in part by a prominent pediatric oncologist, this book provides concrete examples and suggestions for everyone's worst-case scenario: planning on how to parent through your child's death. Because the book gives plenty of room to maintain hope while planning for the worst, I have found it easy to share with other parents whose child may or may not survive. I highly recommend it.

This book is both a gift of profound compassion and a wise insurance policy. The entire pediatric health care team is always hopeful that a child can and will recover from a chronic illness. Despite this, physicians and nurses at times find discussion of a child's possible end of life and quality of life issues too uncomfortable to discuss for various reasons: they do not want families to lose hope, also- the thought of considering the possible death of a child is the most devastating conversation that the healthcare team and family could ever have. Unfortuntately, the absence of this conversation can leave families of chronic and critically ill children unprepared for the peaceful, supportive, pain-free death that is possible with considerate mindfulness and preparation. Families of an ill child can sometimes unfortunately find themselves unexpectedly and suddenly saying good-bye in a crisis intensive care surrounding.

I am both an RN and the mother of a chronically ill/critically ill child...Dr. Hilden's book provides me with the compassion, possible reality, and issues that may lie ahead for my family. I am honored to receive Dr. Hilden's insight and will suggest Shelter from the Storm as recommended reading for parents of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Dr. Hildren and Dr. Tobin provide both exceptional caring and compassion as well as a guidebook to plan and consider the unthinkable: my child may not survive his chronic life-threatening disease. And now I walk on...

I understand the concept of this book. Want to know why I understand it? Because they spend more than HALF of the book saying,"The purpose of this book is to.." It takes too long to get to the point. It has great information about medical procedures in simple language, and some advice about what to expect with a dying child. Overall, this book could have been more. The authors get too wrapped up in themselves and fail to deliver to parents what they keep promising to give. It's a nice book for supplemental reading, but there are better titles out there that will offer true counsel and detail about disease and the effects thereof (On Death and Dying, etc). Also, if you are a parent that is truly struggling with these issues, take full advantage of the Child Life Educator/Specialist staff at your hospital. If there isn't a program like that, then recommend one because those people are true healers.

This is a well written and clearly stated book about how families
with children who have a terminal and/or chronic illness that turns fatal,
can allow their child to die with dignity and loving care.It also
explores the area of hospice care that is often the most compassionate
way for us to help our children in the dying process.