Cherished hearts

“I’m n ot rich, and I’m n ot poor, but I have the time and the wan t to be in the hosp ita l.” – Diane Fa lk

Cherished hea rts

If you ’ve been given one of these pillows , you ’ve earned membership to an exclusive club

It’s a club with more than 17,000 reluctant members, and you can identify them by the heart-shaped pillows they clutch as they leave Royal Columbian Hospital. They are the patients who have had open-heart surgery at BC’s busiest cardiac care centre, and those pillows are created by a small team of volunteers led by an 80-year-old former nurse who has been giving her time to the hospital for four decades. “I’m not rich, and I’m not poor, but I have the time and the want to be in the hospital,” says Diane Falk about her start with Royal Columbian Hospital’s Auxiliary in 1977. “I just like people, and I like helping them.”

It was in 1991 that Royal Columbian Hospital launched its open-heart surgery program. Diane was part of the volunteer planning committee and soon adopted an idea presented by Dr. Dave Hilton. She would oversee the supply of heart pillows to be used to support the chest and provide comfort as cardiac patients perform respiratory exercises following surgery. “I call it a security blanket,” Diane says. Happy heart

Remarkably, while the hospital’s cardiac program has grown substantially over the years, the group of volunteers that manages the heart pillows has remained small. “When we first started open-heart surgery, we didn’t do more than five in a week,” recalls Diane. “They didn’t have to make too many pillows. Of course, that’s grown now. We do 25 in a week, and then we have the emergencies.”

Diane keeps track of the supply and distribution, while Cathie Kabool stitches them together, a role she took over from her mother many years ago. Meantime, fellow Auxiliary member Lorraine Black stuffs the pillows and helps Diane prepare the packages that are given to patients.

“It goes so well, just with the same people; it goes like clockwork,” says Diane. “I am very proud to say if something happened to any of us, they would not have to worry about pillows, because we have at least two weeks done up, three weeks sometimes, ahead.”

Diane hears from many patients who appreciate the pillow, which are regularly signed with notes of encouragement by the cardiac team, while the doctor can sketch out the procedure for reference. “It makes me feel good,” says Diane. “I don’t get paid for what I do, but I do get paid. I have a happy heart when I go home at night.”