Volunteers put themselves in high stress environment
Once resurrected at the emergency room at Saint John’s, Mary Melgun has now become an angel there.
The 60 year old was spared her life there two years ago and still she returns every week to help others get through the traumatic experience of being an E.R. patient.
The Mar Vista resident suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and was rushed to Saint John’s E.R., where doctors quickly responded and transferred her to UCLA Medical Center. She underwent a 5-hour neuro-surgery operation.
“These people in the E.R., if they hadn’t done everything right I would have never made it to UCLA,” she said. “My loyalty remains at Saint John’s.”
Melgun is one of 30 volunteers who serve in the hospital’s “Angel in the E.R.” program. They provide patients with a hand to hold while they go through the stress of the emergency room.
After what hospital staff consider a phenomenal recovery, Melgun was asked to volunteer as an angel by Dr. Victor Candioty, the E.R. doctor that helped save her life, as well as other staff members.
567,“They recognized I was good at communicating and that is a central element here,” she said, adding that she first hesitated at the offer because emergency rooms aren’t exactly her favorite place to hang out.
The energy of an emergency is not only depressing because most people there are acutely ill, but also the fast-paced environment can be extremely stressful for patients and staff.
That’s why Saint John’s felt the need to float some angels in there to help ease patients’ fears, answer their questions and give support to the medical staff.
“We do everything non-medical,” Melgun said.
The list is long and varied in what the angels do in the E.R., but it includes keeping patients and their families informed of the progress. They also do errands for doctors which frees them up to focus on treating the patients and give support to whomever needs it.
“Nobody goes willingly to the emergency room; you are under duress and stress,” Melgun said. “They are scared and if we can ease them in, that’s very rewarding to us.”
Melgun recalls an 85-year-old woman who was an E.R. patient a few months ago. She was Russian and couldn’t speak English. Melgun couldn’t speak Russian, but she stayed with the woman so she wouldn’t be alone.
“She held both of my hands and even though we couldn’t talk to each other, she would kiss my hand as a way to communicate with me,” Melgun said.
Melgun, who has worked as an information systems specialist, among other things for more than 40 years in the corporate world, said she gets more satisfaction being an angel in the E.R. than in any of her careers.
“I’ve never been so well compensated when (the patients) are so grateful,“ she said. “It’s worth a million bucks.”
In many emergency rooms, patients with non-life threatening illness will sit for hours waiting for treatment. And it’s common in many emergency rooms that patients get little information before a doctor can see them.
That’s not always the case at Saint John’s, where the angels check on patients every 15 minutes. The hospital also has a service called “Fast Track,” which guarantees that a patient who needs quick treatment will be in an out of the emergency room in an hour or less.
Dr. Russ Kino, medical director of the emergency room at Saint John’s, said the angels are a Godsend because they free up the medial staff so they focus on healing the ill and wounded.
4D0,“More than anyplace else, this program is needed in the E.R.,” Dr. Kino said. “They have been a huge help for the staff and I think the quality of what we do here has gone up a notch.”
“More than anyplace else, this program is needed in the E.R. They have been a huge help for the staff and I think the quality of what we do here has gone up a notch.” — — DR. RUSS KINO Saint John’s Hospital
What separates Saint John’s E.R. volunteer program from others is the experience that each angel carries with them.
“They usually have been through a lot and have the balance and maturity through life experience,” Dr. Kino said.
Dr. Kino recalls a heart attack victim who died in the E.R. He had the unpleasant task of informing the man’s family that he couldn’t be saved. Dr. Kino said he asked an angel to accompany him and by circumstance, the woman had recently lost her husband the same way.
“She stepped in and took over,” Dr. Kino said. “It left me speechless.”
When Melgun returns home each Tuesday after her four-hour shift, she recovers by letting her husband, Alex, cook her lunch while she unwinds in her robe and slippers.
“It’s a frantic pace,” she said.
‹Â∞ 4,e pa 4,l an 4,he a 4, dev 4,ited 4,ng m
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 24, 2002. Read the original PDF.