Hospital staff break rules to grant dying man’s wish: some wine and a cigarette

A dying man was granted his final wish by staff at a hospital in Denmark who ignored regulations to fulfil the request.

Carsten Flemming Hansen was admitted to Aarhus University Hospital last week where it was discovered he had internal bleeding and was too sick for surgery, according to the hospital’s Facebook page.

It was determined the 75-year-old man would never leave the hospital alive.

Hansen asked his nurse, Rikke Kvist, if she could help fulfil his dying wish of a last cigarette and a glass of wine.

“That was when I remembered that we are on the same floor that has access to a balcony,” Kvist said.

While the hospital does not allow smoking, the staff chose to bend the rules. Hansen was wheeled out to a balcony where he was joined by his family to enjoy a final sunset with a glass of wine and his last cigarette.

“It was a very cozy and relaxed atmosphere,” Kvist said. “Of course, they were relatives also affected by the fact that he was going to die, and they were sad.

“But it was cozy and there was humour.”

The hospital posted a photo of the man as he gazed out onto the town of Aarhus and it has gone viral, being liked over 72,000 times and shared almost 5,000 times.

Hansen’s daughter commented on the pic, thanking people for their support.

“This is my dear father who is in the beautiful picture,” Mette Guldbech Demuth wrote. “Many, many thanks for all the nice comments from you — the warms(sic) more than you expect.”