I. Ekman et al., A place of ones' own. The meaning of lived experience as narrated by an elderly woman with severe chronic heart failure. A case-study, SC J CAR SC, 15(1), 2001, pp. 60-65
The condition of chronic heart failure often means an increasing need of in
stitutional care caused by the severity of such symptoms as fatigue and bre
athlessness. In this case-study, two interviews with an elderly woman were
made at a l-yr interval. A phenomenological hermeneutic method was used to
interpret the interviews. The first narrative, recorded in the subject's ho
me, showed a feeling of being at home in the body, in the room and with hea
lth care. In the second narrative, when the informant lived in a nursing ho
me, a feeling of having no at-homeness, neither in the body, the room nor i
n the relation to the caregivers, was expressed. To deny a patient this pla
ce, or to promote a system that does not permit room for patients as whole
persons, threatens patients' as well as caregivers' identity by conveying t
hat there is no place for reflection upon the experience of illness.