Rian Venter and South Africa's small corps of palliative caregivers ease the emotional, spiritual and physical pain of dying. They administer drugs, hold hands and listen to last stories.
Witness to the Final Hour
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Rian Venter holds purple sachets, syringes and a plastic sheath that moments ago contained a lactate solution used by a doctor giving intravenous relief to a patient with a life-threatening liver condition at West Gauteng Hospice. (VOA / D. Taylor)
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A cheerful ray of sun draws shadows on the window sill of a private room prepared for the next terminally ill patient at upscale Wits Hospice in Houghton, Johannesburg. (VOA / D. Taylor)
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Nurse Rachel Mabena heads Diepkloof's inpatient unit of terminal patients. "They don’t communicate it, but you see the fear in their faces, in their eyes." (VOA / D. Taylor)
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“Sister" Snowy Nkoana has served dying patients in the shanties of Munsieville for more than 40 years. “It’s breaking my heart," she said. "HIV is still very stigmatized here, so some people don’t go to the clinics for the ARVs …I beg them to take their pills…” (VOA / D. Taylor)