2004 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize
Photographer

Walter Schels

Der Spiegel

14 February, 2003

Irmgard Schmidt (82), the widow of a ship's radio officer, nursed her husband through Alzheimer's before herself falling ill.

The practice of palliative hospice care in Germany goes back only to the 1980s. The Ricam hospice has 15 single rooms—more than a third of the total number of hospice beds available in the city. There was a growth in the palliative-care movement in response to patients suffering from AIDS-related illnesses, but the advent of drugs cocktails that help control AIDS has meant that, increasingly, hospice places are occupied by people with diseases such as cancer.

About the photographer

Walter Schels

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