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Dr. Minh-Chi Tran remembers when her mother was in the hospital dying.
“When I was a trainee, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and died not too long after her diagnosis,” Tran said. “I felt very alone during that time, even with my family around me and with my friends contacting me.”
The medical team in the large hospital was focused on those they could help, which Tran said she understood, but it still made a difficult time even harder.
Now Tran hates to think she might have patients feeling the same way, which led to her starting the Wish Project at Stanford Health Care-ValleyCare in June 2018. She continues to be director.
Project volunteers contact patients at the end of life and their families to start conversations and discover how they can bring them comfort as well as celebrate their lives.
Head volunteer Betts Cravotto recalled meeting with a patient who was the young mother of three, ages 14, 17 and 21.
“She said, ‘I am all about Christmas,'” Cravotto remembered, and she asked to have a special glass ornament made with an etched image of her family during their last vacation and inscribed, “Mom is always in your heart.”
The Wish Project had four identical crystal ornaments created — one for each child and one for her widower — and delivered them, as the patient had requested, the first week of December.
So far the Wish Project, which is funded by donations to ValleyCare Charitable Foundation, has served more than 55 families. One wish was for cheesecake with fresh berries. Another family asked for shadow boxes containing the loved one’s name with his EKG and his fingerprints.
“The wishes range from special meals or favorite foods, such as cheesecake or a warm cookie, to memorable keepsakes for families,” said Shaké Sulikyan, president and executive director of ValleyCare Charitable Foundation.
The biggest wish fulfilled to date, Sulikyan noted, has been a 45-minute Mariachi trio performance in May 2019. The patient was brought outside — hospital bed and all — to be serenaded for 45 minutes, surrounded by her family.
Sulikyan said funds are needed to keep the Wish Project helping others at this time of need, and she hopes a current fundraising campaign will allow them to expand the program.
“This holiday season we invite community members to help grant final wishes to patients at the end of their life through our crowdfunding effort,” Sulikyan said. “The average wish costs just $30, so no matter the size of your donation, you will help to give a gift of compassion and dignity to a patient and a heartfelt treasure to their loved ones during the most difficult time in their lives.”
To donate, visit justgiving.com/campaign/wishproject or call 373-4560. Checks, payable to ValleyCare Charitable Foundation, can be mailed to ValleyCare Charitable Foundation, 1111 E. Stanley Blvd., Livermore, CA 94550; write “The Wish Project” on the memo line.
The website has a short video featuring Dr. Tran, volunteer Cravotto and some family members.
“People need very little to feel heard,” Tran says. “By us giving small amounts of compassion, it has made a huge difference in patients’ and their families’ experiences.”
“This has touched my heart more than you can imagine,” one family member said. “Please keep on doing this for people. It definitely makes the family feel like he wasn’t just a chart number, but part of a family.”
And that is just what Dr. Tran intended.
Editor’s note: Dolores Fox Ciardelli is Tri-Valley Life editor for the Pleasanton Weekly. Her column, “Valley Views,” appears in the paper on the second and fourth Fridays of the month.