AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A hospice nurse is opening Augusta’s first inpatient hospice home, giving families a new option for end-of-life care.

Stacia Sirull, a hospice nurse, is opening the Augusta Inpatient Hospice Home. The facility will feature hummingbird decorations throughout.

“My sister passed away a couple of years ago. She died in a hospice house in Kentucky and loved humming birds. When I decided to do this I was like we are just going to put humming birds everywhere,” Sirull said.

Limited options for Augusta families

Augusta families facing end-of-life care currently have limited options. The new facility will serve as an alternative.

“There are many times when I hear I don’t want to die at home. I don’t want leave here and leave the memory of this with my family and don’t want to stay here, or the other way around I don’t want my family member to die at home and have to remember that they were here in this house,” Sirull said.

Sirull said the facility gives people a comfortable option in a homey environment.

“Our slogan is your life, your journey, your choice. The reason we wrote it that way is because I want people to be able to make their own choice at the end of life and have those choices be respected,” she said.

Family shares experience

Krista Weigle’s mother was on hospice in Augusta in 2018. Weigle said her mother began needing more care than she and her sister could provide. Her sister lives in Statesboro, where there is an inpatient hospice home.

“We just felt so blessed to find that place and felt very comfortable with her being there and when she passed we knew we had done the right thing,” Weigle said.

Facility details and community support

The Augusta Inpatient Hospice Home will have six rooms added to the existing building. Sirull said there will always be one bed available for someone who doesn’t have the finances or insurance to cover the stay.

“No one should die alone, no one should die without support in their last days and not just support, but compassionate support,” she said.

Sirull said the community can help by donating hospital beds, blankets, quilts, bedside tables, kitchen items including pots and pans, and personal care items including diapers, wipes and shampoo.

Weigle said she’s happy to know a place she once needed is coming to Augusta.

“My only worry is that it won’t be big enough and once word gets around and people see what need it fills, there will need to be more places like this,” she said.

The Augusta Inpatient Hospice Home is a nonprofit organization set to open May 1.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — The FBI agents have confirmed that they’ve identified the chemical used in a Georgia acid attack.

Just last month, Ashley Wasielewski was walking around Forsyth Park in Savannah when a man hiding in the shadows near Whitaker Street suddenly came out and attacked Wasielewski with an unknown chemical substance.

Sources close to the investigation say that liquid melted through Wasielewski’s clothing and headphones and left her with severe burns.

On Friday, the FBI released that they now know what that substance was but are not releasing the name of the substance to the public at this time.

FBI officials say that SLED assisted and did the testing on behalf of the the organization.

Agents are also following up on leads now that the substance has been identified.

Just days after the attack, more than $260,000 had been raised for Wasielewski, who was recovering at a burn center in Augusta.

One of Ashley’s friends, Kristen Oddi organized a GoFundMe to help pay for Wasielewski’s extensive medical care.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Augusta mayor race now has three candidates as another person has announced their candidacy.

Eric Gaines, who’s on the charter review committee and is a local real estate investor, announced on Sunday that he is running for mayor on Sunday.

He said in a Facebook post that his campaign is built on a simple idea: People before politics.

• Transparent leadership you do not have to decode.
• Accessible government that listens instead of lectures.
• Decisions based on what actually improves lives not what protects careers.

“I’m not running because someone tapped me on the shoulder. I’m not running because a political machine told me it was my turn. And I’m definitely not running because I raised a mountain of cash behind closed doors,” he said.

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