Beyond the Headlines:
Nice to Meet You
Dr. Eliezer Be'eri, director of the Rehabilitation and Respiratory Care Department at ALYN Hospital for children, suffered a cardiac arrest while playing squash. His wife, Shira, was shocked to discover that he had been rushed to the hospital and admitted as an "unidentified patient" because no one had recognized him.
She chose a lovely photograph of her husband, wrote a short account of his life, and hung it beside his hospital bed. The first nurse who saw the poster told Shira how inspiring and motivating it was. When Dr. Be'eri recovered, thank God, the two of them began promoting the idea.
Their goal is to help medical staff in hospital departments see the patient as a whole person, rather than simply as a medical file. Volunteers create personalized posters that are displayed beside patients' beds, allowing everyone to get to know them a little better and bring a greater sense of humanity to the medical experience.
The volunteers visit hospital departments, sit with patients or their families, and get to know the person behind the diagnosis. To date, they have created some 3,000 posters.
