EXCHANGE: Honor Walk created for patients who donate organs

QUINCY, Ill. (AP) - Kristen DeVine knew her younger sister Rachel Snelling would want to help as many people as she could. That was Rachel.

A certified medical assistant for Blessing Physician Services for three years, Rachel, 25, died unexpectedly from a ruptured blood vessel in her brain June 3 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

As Rachel was an organ donor, the staff at Barnes offered the family the opportunity to participate in the hospital's Honor Walk program.

An Honor Walk is offered to the family of an organ donor as the donor is escorted from their hospital room. Caregivers and other staff in the hospital line the hallway in silent respect as the donor and family move to the destination of the donation within the hospital.

"It was touching to see the amount of people that honored her in kind of the last walk of life she had," DeVine said. "They just filled the hall with probably 100 plus employees -- from nurses to doctors to housekeeping. People who didn't know her, you could see tears running down their faces.

"The amount of respect and appreciation they had gave us so much, not closure, but a sense of purpose, like something so beautiful to come out of something so tragic and awful, and I wanted to be able to provide that to the patients that I take care of from here on out."

A registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at Blessing Hospital for about four years, DeVine worked with hospital leadership and its Life Team, as well as the Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network, to bring an Honor Walk program to the hospital.

"I've taken care of numerous organ donor patients," DeVine said. "It was already something that was kind of sacred to me, and I've seen the benefits of what organ donor can do for families of loved ones that pass away, but then this summer I actually experienced it from the other side."

Before her family's experience with an Honor Walk, DeVine was aware that some hospitals offered the program for families and the Life Team at Blessing had talked before about establishing an Honor Walk program.

"After I saw how powerful it was, I really wanted to get jumping through the hoops to get it going, because I wanted to bring that to our patients," she said.

For DeVine and her family, organ donation has helped with their grief.

"It gives you something to hang on to, and what's really cool is we found out where her organs went to," she said. "Her heart went to a man in Colorado. Her lungs went to a 21-year-old in Iowa. Her pancreas and one of her kidneys went to somebody who actually lives pretty close to us and has already reached out to us."

The hospital staff honored a patient during its first Honor Walk on Nov. 26.

Staff from throughout the hospital lined the hallway from the ICU to surgery in honor of the patient and their family.

After a death occurs at Blessing Hospital in which an organ donation will be made, an offer of an Honor Walk will be made to the patient's family. If the family accepts, a message will be sent electronically to all hospital employees on duty with the patient's room number and the time the patient will be moved from the room. Available employees will be asked to join coworkers lining the halls in silent honor of the donor and their loved ones.

"The connections Blessing caregivers make involve the patient's loved ones whenever possible, said Maureen Kahn, president and chief executive officers for Blessing Hospital and the Blessing Health System. "The Honor Walk will be poignant, visual reminder of the connection we feel with them and the respect we have for the selfless choice their loved one has made to help others in need."

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Source: The Quincy Herald-Whig, https://bit.ly/2QT8xqG

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Information from: The Quincy Herald-Whig, http://www.whig.com