Beebe Mended Hearts to meet Oct. 19
October 2016 marks the 10th year that Mended Hearts Chapter 344 has been a support group dedicated to inspiring and improving the quality of life for heart patients and their families by providing hope, help and healing. Chapter 344 will meet at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 19, and every third Wednesday of the month in the Cardiac Rehab area on the third floor of the Medical Arts Building behind the Tunnell Cancer Center on Route 24 in Lewes. Anyone interested in volunteering for Mended Hearts is invited to attend the meeting.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of Americans, totaling more than 600,000 deaths annually. This disease claims more lives each year than cancer, respiratory diseases and accidents combined. Mended Hearts is a national and community-based nonprofit organization that offers the gift of hope to heart disease patients, their families and caregivers. As the largest cardiovascular peer-to-peer support network in the world, Mended Hearts has been extending this support for more than 65 years, visiting more than 200,000 patients each year.
Locally, Mended Hearts-trained accredited members (visitors), can be found as Beebe Healthcare volunteers escorting heart patients throughout Beebe hospital for pre-admission testing prior to their scheduled heart procedure. They also can be found making daily visits to patients who have recently undergone heart surgery and are recovering in the hospital’s heart unit. Other Mended Hearts members can be found helping recovering heart patients in the Cardiac Rehab area. These volunteers are like the people they serve. They also are heart patients serving others going through what they went through themselves. This allows them to draw on their own personal experiences as they escort, visit, educate, reassure and inspire others.
Healthcare professionals continually praise the patient-to-patient connection as they witness firsthand the benefits to their patients’ overall recovery. The Mended Hearts members do more than escort and visit patients; they also provide education, support, and encouragement to all types of heart patients and their families. The local Mended Hearts Chapter helps the patients, their families, and caregivers learn and understand more about their heart and learn to lead productive and healthy lives through monthly group meetings. Members listen and share their experiences, and volunteer to talk to patients about the benefits of lifestyle changes, depression, and recovery.
During their 10 years, Beebe’s Mended Hearts volunteers have escorted 1,452 patients for pre-admission testing and visited 4,795 hospital patients. For more information, call Barbara Maloney at 302-827-4285 or Jean Avery at 302-947-4549.
