Handmade
Comfort Touches
At Pali Momi Medical Center, sometimes comfort
comes in the form of a blanket.
Sewing club for Blankets from the Heart program at Pali Momi Medical Center.
FOR PATIENTS FACING
SERIOUS OR EVEN TERMINAL
MEDICAL CONDITIONS, soft
and colorful handmade blankets are
a gift to help ease their worries and
make them feel more at home. And
it all comes from the hearts and
hands of volunteers. out as an individual project with
a quilt I donated, but I began to
wonder how I could expand this
project by engaging the HPH
community,” Dr. Gallagher said. “It
also gave me the chance to teach
and share my quilting passion for a
good cause.”
Crafter Jeanette Kaneshiro came
up with the idea that turned into
Pali Momi's Blankets from the Heart
program. The Palliative Care team
offers it as an extension of care for
patients and their families. One of her ideas was to create
a sewing club. Volunteers and
staff members from across the
Hawai‘i Pacific Health system meet
quarterly to design, cut, piece, quilt
and bind the blankets.
Emergency physician Dr. Lily
Gallagher is a quilter herself. She
took leadership of the program in
2018 after she made a quilt for the
Pali Momi Art Exhibit. “It started
“No two blankets are the same and
family members go home with
a handmade quilt that provided
warmth and comfort to their loved
ones,” Dr. Gallagher said. “The
Jamie Sharpe (left), palliative
care nurse practitioner at Kapi‘olani
Medical Center for Women &
Children and Jody Barnhart (right),
mother of Dr. Kersten Milligan,
emergency physician at Pali Momi
Medical Center.
volunteers have expressed how
good it feels to make something
so personal and unique from
beginning to end.”
Recently, the program expanded
to include handmade chemo port
seatbelt pillows that are given to
patients at the cancer center. These
special pillows attach to a seatbelt
to help protect the small port
beneath the skin where patients get
their chemotherapy. Every project is
funded by community contributions
and offers a bit of love and care for
those who need it most.
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