WARSAW, Poland -- When Ewa Lutka-Krawczyk was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer, her first thought was for Gaja, a shelter dog she took in 3 years ago. She asked her doctor to assure her she would live a few more years so the deeply attached Gaja "wouldn't be left behind."
But the prognosis was grim, and this month the 70-year-old was admitted to the palliative ward of a Warsaw hospital. Left at home with Lutka-Krawczyk's husband, Gaja was barely eating.
"She is waiting for me," Lutka-Krawczyk said from her bed, where she rested with a draining tube attached to her abdomen.
Under proposed new legislation in Poland, patients like Lutka-Krawczyk soon would have the right to be visited in hospices and palliative care wards by their pets. Visits are already allowed in many clinics, but there is no universal right under the law.
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