Healing, Presence, and Comfort Amid Child Loss | Shekinah Eliassen

Mar 4, 2025

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In medicine, we are trained to fight for life — to extend it, preserve it and restore it. But sometimes the goal shifts from curing to comforting. That, in brief, is the essence of palliative care. It compels us to ask what it means to truly care for a person at the end of life, not as a failure of medicine but as a profound act of love.

In this episode, we enter a space where time slows down, where every moment is cherished, and where medicine is tantamount to presence, dignity, and grace. George Mark Children's House in California is the first freestanding pediatric palliative care center in the United States, a place where children with serious, life-limiting conditions can spend their time in a home-like setting and live fully, where families find respite, and where end-of-life care is infused with humanity and meaning. It's a place that helps families navigate one of the hardest journeys imaginable, offering not just medical support, but also emotional and spiritual care.

Joining us is Shekinah Eliassen, CEO of George Mark Children's House, who has dedicated her life to reimagining how we care for children with complex and terminal illnesses. She opens up about how the loss of her first son drives her work to this day. We'll explore the essence of pediatric palliative care, the misconceptions, the difficult conversations, the small joys, and the profound impact of honoring life, no matter how brief. This is a conversation about medicine at its most intimate and compassionate.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

2:53 - The family tragedy that introduced Eliassen to George Mark Children’s House

15:08 - Eliassen’s personal experience with pediatric palliative care and how her understanding has evolved

19:26 - How palliative care differs from physician aid in dying

23:21 - George Mark Children’s House’s approach to pediatric palliative care

28:09 - The importance of “savouring the moment”

37:04 - Limiting factors that currently prevent pediatric palliative care from expanding

41:44 - The role that spirituality and religion play at George Mark Children’s House

48:17 - Eliassen’s advice to her past self on how to prepare for the life-changing experience of child loss

Shekinah Eliassen can be found on Instagram at @shekinahceliassen.

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