Community Kindness Countdown to Christmas: Dr. Sharon Buehner brings love and tenderness in life's last days

Meeting Dr. Sharon Buehner at her place of work may not be something folks are really looking forward to,

Sharon is a palliative care doctor at the Sault Area Hospital.  Meeting her means someone in your family circle is in their final days of life here on this earth.

And for that very reason, meeting Dr. Sharon Buehner was exactly what my mom and our family needed to do at that moment. For us as a family group, meeting and dealing with Sharon was the best thing that could have happened to us, and to my mom, in her last few days.

From the moment Dr. Buehner walked into the room with my mom there was a sense of calm and love and tenderness that filled the air. Dr. Buehner can do that to an environment. She sat with my mom, and she talked with my mom, and she sat in that room and she talked with us.

My experience with Dr. Buehner was only eight hours long, for in that time span this precious Doctor accessed my mom and felt the best place for her was at the Arch Hospice. Now her job was to counsel and advise a family, so distraught that their mother was already at this point, about why this was the best decision for mom and for us. And Sharon was able to do that.

I can still remember as we loaded mom into an ambulance for her final cruise up Great Northern Road, on her way to Arch, how my entire family was grateful and thankful to Dr. Buehner for the gift of having her present in our day.

So that is my lived experience with Dr. Buehner. One day near the end of my mom’s life. One day that I will never forget as long as I live.

If that was the end of Dr. Buehner’s story you would say that is plenty.  What a great and caring person she is, what a kind and good doctor she is, so true to her craft, but there is so much more to Dr. Sharon Buehner.

If you do a little digging you will discover that Dr. Sharon Buehner was awarded the Dr. William Hutchison Award, presented annually by the SAH Board, for distinguished contributions to health care in the Algoma region.

It seems that Dr. Buehner was a pioneer in developing and fostering a team approach to work in palliative care in our region. She recognized the need for a residential hospice in our region and was part of the planning team for the Algoma Residential Community Hospice - Arch. She is the Medical Advisor to staff there, and she now sits of the board of governors for Arch

At the regional level, Dr. Buehner is an Associate Professor Of Medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and she has worked with and coached countless students about what exceptional palliative care looks like.

Her outpatient work, her teaching work, her exceptional level of duty and care, her vision for a shared approach to palliative care earned Dr. Buehner the 2014 Sault Area Hospital Physcian ICare Award. Such a deserving person.

Reading accounts of Sharon’s work experience the words champion, visionary and caregiver keep coming up. I guess countless others already knew what my family discovered that sad day for us in July 2018.

Dr. Sharon Buehner is a champion of palliative care, with a vision that created our current model of shared care for patients in the Algoma region, in a heartfelt and truly loving manner.

You are an angel among us, and our community is forever indebted to you Sharon.

Oh, and by the way, I hear she is a darn good hockey player too.

My wish for you is that you get the chance to enjoy the peace and joy of the Christmas season.

Thank you Dr. Buehner