No One Dies Alone

Our new No One Dies Alone program is profiled in an article today's Reading Eagle (that's me, in the sport jacket and with the tie in the photo at left of us holding an orientation session for our latest group of volunteers).

Here's what the article says about the program:

Berks County, PA - While death is clearly solitary, it doesn’t have to be lonely. Yet for thousands of patients in hospitals across the country it is a lonely experience. Sometimes the family is estranged; sometimes there simply is no family or friends left alive. Sometimes there is no one available to stroke a forehead or squeeze a hand as life ebbs.

But thanks to Lynn Schiavone, that’s not the case at Reading Hospital.

Schiavone is both the catalyst and the coordinator of the No One Dies Alone program that began at the hospital in November. It uses hospital employees and volunteers to sit with patients who are dying, offering the simple comfort of their company.

“A lot of them have outlived their families,” Schiavone said. “Or they’d moved a distance away. I had read about this program and I thought it would be right for this hospital.”

I am so proud of the work the volunteers are doing and of all the folks who came together to set up the program. They are truly blessed!