Rachel’s Legacy

Lynna Chandra

“Rachel fought cancer for a long time … but when she knew she was at the end of her fight, she told her husband to send her to a hospice.” It was the first time that Lynna Chandra, 42, had heard of the concept of hospice care – a principle of holistic management for those with terminal illness, and it spurred her interest.

After her close friend Rachel died, Lynna, an Indonesian-born Singapore citizen, thought about the people who could not afford or have access to the ‘good death’ that Rachel had. “Rachel had a lot of pain management and good end-of-life care,” recalled Lynna. “More importantly she had a lot of personal contact with her caregivers. I found that touch played a very important part in her final days and it brought a lot of comfort to her.” It was this personal care and comfort that Lynna wanted to ensure for the dying –particularly for children.

Children’s cancer wards in Jakarta can be dismal, said Lynna. “There was no such thing as pain management and children were frequently crying and helpless.” On one visit, she saw mothers dipping their children’s fingers in ice cubes to soothe the burning sensation that is a side-effect of chemotherapy. It was a shock to discover that it would only cost USD10 (SGD15) to the buy painkillers, and yet many could not afford it, she said.

In memory of her friend, Lynna established Rachel House in 2006 to provide palliative care for children with life-threatening illnesses. “Rachel was an incredibly courageous woman who never let her cancer stop her from doing anything or from caring for people,” said Lynna.

“Rachel was an incredibly courageous woman who never let her cancer stop her from doing anything or from caring for people.”

This mission was not without its challenges: for one, no one wanted the stigma of having a ‘death house’ near their homes. Location constraints aside, palliative care skills are still lacking and sometimes dismissed by critics as a waste of healthcare resources. Today, Rachel House – a three-bed ward – has a ‘home’ in the Rumah Sakit Metropolitan Medical Centre. It is currently the only free hospice care centre in Jakarta that offers both inpatient and home care. Rachel House has also partnered the Singapore International Foundation on a training programme in palliative care to raise the proficiency of their staff. These skills will be passed on to other healthcare providers in turn.

Despite the challenges of running the facility, Lynna has seen great strides being taken. She recounts the tale of one of their first in-patients, a 7-year-old girl named Bayu who had eye cancer. “Bayu loved to read the Kursi (the death passage in the Koran). One of our nurses, a Catholic nurse, doted on Bayu. One day she asked to be taught how to read the Kursi so she could read it to Bayu.”

It was in that moment when Lynna realised that a transformation had taken place. Barriers such as religion and fear of death had been crossed; where there was once ignorance and fear, there is now compassion and courage – the very legacy that Rachel had inspired.