Raritan Bay Medical Center Celebrates Life   

Raritan Bay Medical Center Celebrates Life

December 27, 2018

Raritan Bay holds 2nd annual Celebration of Life event

Former patients and their families, team members, and hospital administrators recently gathered for Hackensack Meridian Health Raritan Bay Medical Center’s second annual Celebration of Life event held at the Monarch at Woodbridge. More than 55 people attended the luncheon celebrating the remarkable strength and extraordinary courage of patients, and their families, who received care in the hospital’s intensive and coronary care units.

“Our Celebration of Life event is an opportunity to honor the life of each patient, or the memory of a loved one who has passed, who we have been privileged to have provided care at Raritan Bay,” says Manager of Patient- and Family-Centered Care Dawn Wright-Stuart, who organized the luncheon with the hospital’s Celebration of Life committee.

Theresa and Robert Donnelly, Ph.D, and daughter Wendy are one family who attended. Robert, who now lives in Milford, N.Y. with Theresa, visits Raritan Bay every year to wish team members well and thank them on the anniversary of his discharge from the ICU eleven years ago. At the time, Robert suffered from heat stroke, was taken to Raritan Bay’s emergency department, and there had a seizure which led to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Robert spent the next six days in the ICU where he credits his nurses and doctors with saving his life more than once.

“This was obviously a life-changing experience and I am forever grateful to the nurses in particular who cared for me and made sure I survived. I think about them every day and the least I can do is to reinforce my deep gratitude by visiting and sharing the events in my life they allowed me to be part of, including two weddings and births of five grandchildren,” says Robert. “The event was excellent and served as a reminder of how important the work of the ICU nurse is and how many lives they effect. I found it inspiring, and hope it was rewarding for the staff as well.”

Celebration of Life is championed by Raritan Bay’s Medical Director of Critical Care L. Chadrick Chua, M.D., as a time of renewal and remembrance, focusing on five “Rs,” including; recognition, re-connection with patient and families, reminder for caregivers of their purpose, renewal of spirit, and to re-energize.

Hackensack Meridian Health Director of Spiritual Care Reverend David Cotton provided inspirational words for attendees as he discussed steps to ensure living a life that “blossoms” in the face of adversity. Other speakers included Raritan Bay’s Alissa Holman, M.D., Vice President of Operations and Raritan Bay Old Bridge Site Executive William DiStanislao, Senior Director of Nursing Debra Mahoney, R.N., Intensive Care Unit Manager Linda Lopazanski, R.N., and patients’ families.

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.

Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 16 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers – Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children’s hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals - Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin, Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, and Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.

Additionally, the network has more than 450 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has 33,000 team members, and 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The network’s notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, four hospitals among the top 10 in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” one of the “20 Best Workplaces in Health Care” in the nation, and the number one “Best Place to Work for Women.” The network was also named to Becker’s Healthcare’s “150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2018” list.

Hackensack Meridian Health partnered with Seton Hall University to launch the first private medical school in New Jersey – Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University - in more than 50 years to address a growing shortage of physicians and dramatic changes in health care delivery. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it. Hackensack Meridian Health and Carrier Clinic, New Jersey’s oldest and most respected behavioral health provider, signed a definitive agreement to merge.

Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

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