“Having no visitors allowed at the hospital has made it really hard on grieving families,” says Karen Vargas, BSN, RN, Emergency Department Nurse Manager. “They never got to see their loved one or say goodbye. I wanted to find a small way for them to get some closure.”
Her idea: to mail a card of sympathy to families along with the actual EKG (electrocardiogram) of their loved one.
Vargas took the patient’s EKG strip, inserted it into a small glass bottle and affixed that to the card. More than 50 of these went in the mail May 1, with more planned to go out until the end of the no-visitor policy.
The card reads: “You hold your loved one’s heartbeat in your hand. A simple strip of paper filled with the essence of them. The heart is the place we hold our joy, sorrow, courage, love and faith.
“At Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway, we treat all our patients like family and although you could not be by your loved one’s side during this extremely difficult time, please take comfort in knowing that your family member was cared for and surrounded by love until the very end. Our deepest condolences.”