The Heart Pillows group meets every Monday morning
(Subject to change re: holidays on Mondays etc)

These pillows are made and delivered to heart surgery patients at Sunnybrook Hospital

by the Heart Pillow Ladies, Scarborough Retirees' Club of the Telco Community Volunteers.

WOW!!

25,000!

A special presentation was made to the Heart Ladies
at Sunnybrook on Monday, September 21
to recognize their outstanding achievement.

 

25,824 Heart pillows have been donated to Sunnybrook!
(updated August 07, 2016)

The Pioneers “Heart Pillow” is designed to aid patients recovering from heart surgery.
Patients are encouraged to cough to release congestion in their lungs.
Prior to the Pioneers “Heart Pillow”, hospitals would give patients rolled up blankets to hold against their chests to ease the pain associated with coughing.
The rolled up blankets are cumbersome for the patients to handle.
The Pioneers “Heart Pillow” is a convenient, attractive and easy to handle remedy for heart patients with congestion.

 

 

Heart Pillow Team (2016)
Evelyn Lonergan	Dianne Niemietz	Ester Sitchon
Sylvia Pratt	Sharie Stewart	Susan Seabrooke

June Gardiner will be "retiring" from the group on September 21/2015

 

Initial Members of the Heart Pillow Team from Day One
(Started in 1992)

Ivy Taylor	Arlene Lowther	Vi Burke
June Gardiner	Joyce Gill	Eleanor Hunt
Glenys Lee	Joyce Ashberry	Nina Luszczki
Dianne Niemietz	Mary O'Brien	Dorothy Patterson
Olive Phillips	Mary Shinn	Helen Shaughnessy
Sharie Stewart	Doris Foley	Marg MacInnis
Sheila McEwan	Jean Howard	Jean Vernon

Celebrating 20,000 hearts

Tuesday, June 01, 2010
For the past 18 years, they have come together on Monday mornings at the Scarborough Town Centre to cut, sew, stuff and deliver red, heart-shaped pillows to patients of Sunnybrook's Schulich Heart Centre who have undergone cardiovascular surgery. On May 28, the ladies of the "Heart Pillow Project" made an extra special delivery to the Sunnybrook Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) to present one special patient with the 20,000th pillow made by hand, with love.

"Making heart pillows gives us a chance to visit with friends we might not otherwise see regularly and the heart pillows we make comfort people who have undergone heart surgery at Sunnybrook. It's a win-win situation," says Mary Shinn, Pillow Project originator. "We're having fun and making a difference in the lives of others!"

Dr. Stephen Fremes, Head of the Division of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at Sunnybrook was joined by Dr. Bernard Goldman, founder of the Division, Dr. Gordon Rubenfeld, chief of Trauma, Emergency and Critical Care, and the CVICU nursing staff to witness the presentation of the 20,000th heart pillow to Mr. Sam Jaipaulsingh.

"Not only do the heart pillows provide comfort to surgical patients, but they also help in the recovery process," said Dr. Fremes. "By hugging the pillow, the chest cavity is kept intact and there is less likelihood of stitches tearing."

The Sunnybrook team thanked the ladies for their dedication to the patients of the Schulich Heart Centre and for the comfort they have provided with their healing hearts over the years.

What does it take to make 20,000 heart pillows by hand?

3.6 km of red cotton fabric
4 tons of fiberfill
400 spools of red thread
20,000 "Telco Community Volunteers" labels

 

 

Scarborough Retirees' Club
100 Borough Drive - Floor 1
Scarborough ON M1P 4W2

Club Room (416) 290-5381 - Hot Line (416) 296-0281

Email Address
slm.club@sympatico.ca