Led by registered nurse Dana Williams, in collaboration with members of the Sound Critical Care and Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the event welcomed approximately 14 intensive care patients and their loved ones, along with the numerous health-care professionals who stood beside them.
Together, they commemorated the resilience and relationships forged during otherwise challenging times. Dr. Ade Adesanya emphasized this in his opening remarks.
“We celebrate those who continue to join us in healing,” he said, “and reflect on the power of hope, love and community that supports all of you as you get better. We honor those with love and reaffirm the hope and humanity that defines the work we do here at Wyckoff.”
Several guests at the “Celebration of Life” event were Catholic. Following introductory comments by Dr. Adesanya and Dr. Louisa Travers, Father Francisco Ares offered a short blessing.
Beyond speeches from Wyckoff’s health care professionals, the event made room for more personal, idiosyncratic tributes.
Williams began with two original poems, “Bloom that Lives On” and “Bloom Beyond the ICU,” before handing out stickers printed with the poems to the patient’s relatives. The hospital also presented a slideshow gallery of older photos showing family members bonding with nurses, respiratory therapists, and support staff. The tributes closed with a musical performance from Dakota Mitchell, who sang a rendition of Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
When Wyckoff Heights Medical Center hosted its first “Celebration of Life” event last year, the initiative was exclusive to families and former ICU patients. However, this year the event was expanded to honor the families of patients who did not survive, which Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gustavo Del Toro highlighted during his speech about organ donation.
“There are patients who don’t have the fortune that you have, and patients who don’t make it, and we think about them as well,” he said. “We should thank those patients who gave parts of their body after dying to others.”
The initiative also aimed to encourage the hospital’s ICU staff in their life-saving work, a point reflected in Dr. Mohammad Gilani’s remarks. He noted the courage and mental fortitude that comes with working round-the-clock in the hospital, buoying the morale of those under times of distress.
“In the ICU, we often meet people on the worst day of their lives,” he said. “We witness uncertainty, we witness fear, and incredible challenges. But today, we gather for something much more powerful. We celebrate the resilience, the hope, and the strength of the human spirit.”
The “Celebration of Life” event also included personal testimonies, as speakers recounted personal or family experiences in the ICU. The anecdotes ranged from their transformation to how they overcame the physical and mental strain of being in the ICU.
One of the testimonial speakers was registered nurse Virginia Govindavari, who shared how she placed her trust in the staff at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center when her sister received treatment for a brain hemorrhage.
“She didn’t want to call 9-1-1, but [instead] they walked to the emergency room, and I’m so thankful for the excellent care that my sister experienced from the emergency room,” she said. “They did not know that it was already an emergency, so I’m so thankful for the nurses of the emergency room, the nurses in the OR, the nurses in the ICU … Everyone that was involved with the care of my sister.”
Having worked at Wyckoff for nearly four decades, Govindavari has witnessed the hospital’s growth firsthand and praised the community it has fostered.
“I used to work in the ICU emergency room, and I have seen … so much improvement that I can even trust [them with my sister] when she was in ICU,” she said. “My friends, my co-workers, they are like family, friends who are there to really take good care of her and … encourage us and give us comfort that she is in good hands.”
To close the event, patients and family members were offered certificates.
