Nurses grant dying man final wish a cigarette and glass of wine ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/11/nurses-grant-dyi...

Nurses grant dying man final wish a

cigarette and glass of wine
After deciding Carsten Flemming Hansen, 75, was too ill for surgery, Danish hospital
broke protocol to grant his last request

Carsten Flemming Hansen watches the sun go down from his hospital bed in Denmark. Photograph:
@aarhusuniversitetshospital

Anna Livsey
Tuesday 11 April 2017 08.49BST

A man has been granted his dying wish of a cigarette and a glass of white wine by sta at
a hospital in Denmark.

According to a post on the hospitals Facebook page, Carsten Flemming Hansen, 75, was
found to be terminally ill after he was admitted to hospital with an aortic aneurysm and
internal bleeding.

Predicting it would be a matter of hours or days before Hansen died, the hospital decided
not to operate and instead granted the patient a dignied death.

The nurses at Aarhus University hospital decided to defy regulations that stipulated no
smoking on the hospitals grounds and wheeled Hansen out on to a balcony where he

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Nurses grant dying man final wish a cigarette and glass of wine ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/11/nurses-grant-dyi...

smoked a Green LA cigarette and drank a glass of cold white wine while watching the
sunset with his family.

In its Facebook post, the hospital said the nurses in Hansens ward and his family agreed
that in this situation, his last wishes were more important than treatment, prevention
and smoking rules.

It was a very cosy and relaxed atmosphere, said nurse Rikke Kvist. Of course there
were relatives also aected by the fact he was going to die, and they were sad, she said.

The hospitals Facebook post has received almost 70,000 likes, more than 4,500 shares
and thousands of comments.

Topics
Denmark
Death and dying/Europe/news

2 of 2 11/04/2017, 15:38