Like many other reports of animals living in hospitals, Tom seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to comforting these veterans in need.
At the Salem VA Medical Center in Virginia, this little angel is welcome to give ailing patients the empathy and affection that they need. He has an almost magic ability to aid people with their rehabilitation, or soothe their souls in hospice and palliative care. Alongside a team of skilled nurses, he acts as one of the most vital parts of the hospital’s dedication to holistic care.
“You can’t beat a good, purring, loving kitty cat,” Army veteran James Gearhart of Bassett, Virginia, told TODAY. Tom really helped his rehabilitation after being treated for throat cancer. Gearhart was discharged and is doing just fine.
“Tom knows when someone is having a hard time. He laid on my bed a lot and I rubbed and scratched him the way cats like,” Gearhart said. “One day I gave him some of my Ensure vanilla drink and he drank every bit of it. Then he rubbed on me and licked my hands.”
Tom helps the staff as well. The hospital’s chief of extended care service, Dr. Blake Lipscomb, said that Tom was right beside him when he had to pronounce a veteran dead. “Tom looked up at me and meowed. He had been with the veteran and his family at a time that was hardest for them, doing exactly what we wanted him to do — to help make a more low-stress, homelike environment.” Together, doctor and cat, they both care about providing the best quality of life, even in someone’s last moments.
Tom started living in the hospital in 2012 when Dottie Rizzo, chief nurse, and physician assistant Laura Hart, read a book, “Making Rounds with Oscar,” about a cat named Oscar who comforted dementia patients on the verge of death. “We knew we needed a cat just like that,” Rizzo said. “We enlisted the assistance of a local veterinarian’s office manager who went to a shelter and visited with the cats for a long time before deciding on Tom.”
Tom is well-loved at the facility. Although veterans can opt-out of feline therapy and stay in the “No Cat Zone” full of Tom-free rooms, most quickly warm up to the kitty. They bring him plenty of treats, and even the employees come to play with him. He acts like one of the hospital staff, too — he demands to be let into private team meetings, and rides the service carts they use to make rounds.
Rizzo remembers that Tom helped out a terminal patient with Parkinson’s disease who had trouble speaking. “With Tom in his lap, it was less difficult for him to talk, because rubbing the cat calmed him down and relaxed his vocal cords,” she said.
Another time, a veteran’s daughter did not get along with cats, even though her father loved Tom. “One day she stepped out of her father’s room for a few minutes and Tom went in. Then the cat came out and ‘went to get her,’ meowing at her until she returned to her father’s room. Minutes later her father died. The daughter was convinced Tom made sure she was with her father when he passed.”
Tom’s incredible empathy means that he needs breaks, too. “After he’s been with someone who died, he needs to be by himself for a while. It’s tough on us, because everyone is always looking for him. We love him,” Hart said. He shoulders part of the burden that these veterans, their loved ones, and the dedicated staff have to bear, as these brave men and women get the treatment and comfort that they deserve.
Read more about Tom in the 2014 memoir by Sharon Herndon, Tom the Angel Cat. She writes about her father’s death and his relationship to Tom, “the final salute to a job well done.”
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