Pastoral care of patients with Ebola Virus Disease: A medical and canonical opinion about pastoral visits to patients with contagious and highly fatal diseases.

The Ebola Virus Disease is a contagious and highly fatal illness that up until recently had been geographically limited to remote areas of Africa. In 2014, Ebola patients have been transported to the United States for care or have been newly diagnosed in the United States. With the intensive medical care and isolation policies usually needed by these patients, we inquired whether pastoral care would be possible. Using clinical and canonical considerations, we analyzed the permissibility and logistical challenges pastoral care presents to the priests and lay ministers, as well as the healthcare system. We conclude that with the approval of local, state, and federal health officials, pastoral care, including provision of the sacraments, is possible. It would require proper training, proper equipment and policies, and a significant commitment of time. While the risk to the pastoral team is difficult to define, it seems low in an Ebola-capable medical system. These risks to priests and ministers seem reasonable given the inestimable benefits of receiving the sacraments during critical illness. Lay summary: Traditional pastoral visits to hospitalized patients might prove difficult or impossible for diseases that are contagious and highly fatal. This inquiry examines the feasibility, challenges, and logistical solutions to these visits. With input from bishops, priests, a canon lawyer, an epidemiologist, a physician, the CDC, and others, we conclude that pastoral visits are possible. Visits will require permission of health authorities, commitments of time, training, and a small but significant risk to the health of priests and others who volunteer for this ministry.

Endobronchial brachytherapy and optimization of local disease control in medically inoperable non-small cell lung carcinoma: a matched-pair analysis.

PURPOSE: External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) alone for early stage, medically inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (MILC) can produce local disease control and sometimes cure. We have previously reported that higher EBRT doses result in improved disease control and, for patients with tumors > or =3.0 cm, improved survival. This report describes the impact of dose escalation with endobronchial brachytherapy boost during or following EBRT upon local disease control. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Medical records of 404 patients with MILC treated with radiotherapy alone were reviewed. Thirty-nine patients received a planned endobronchial brachytherapy boost during or following a course of EBRT. A matched-pair analysis of disease control and survival was performed by matching each brachytherapy patient to 2 EBRT patients from a reference group of the remaining patients. RESULTS: Endobronchial brachytherapy boost significantly improved local disease control over EBRT alone (58% vs. 32% at 5 years). The local control benefit for brachytherapy was found to be limited to patients with T(1-2) disease or tumors < or =5.0 cm. Among these patients treated with endobronchial boost, EBRT doses of > or =6500 cGy were necessary to optimize local disease control. No overall survival differences were observed at 3 years. Excess toxicity with brachytherapy was not observed. CONCLUSION: Endobronchial brachytherapy boost enhances local disease control rates in MILC treated with EBRT. Local control outcome is optimized when radical EBRT doses are used in conjunction with brachytherapy.