 |
|
|
|
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Sunnyvale wife-and-husband team, Mary and Jim Raddatz, both do volunteer work at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. Mary has been a volunteer for the past 11 years in the pre-op nursing station, and Jim has been working for the past 14 months as a hospital escort.
Pair of Hearts
Jim and Mary Raddatz enjoy their retirement working in El Camino Hospital
By Melissa Matchak
For Sunnyvale resident Jim Raddatz, one month of retirement was plenty. After leaving Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto in December 1999, at age 63, Raddatz soon decided he would go back to work as a volunteer at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.
"I wanted to keep busy and active," Raddatz said. "I didn't want to let the grass grow between my toes."
Since January 2000, Raddatz has been the leader of the "escort service" at El Camino, managing approximately 80 volunteers who escort X-rays, blood samples, specimens and other items from nurses stations or pharmacies in the hospital to where they need to go. Those volunteers also escort patients from their rooms to the pickup area when they are discharged from the hospital.
Raddatz is also part of the recruiting committee formed at the hospital in November. As part of the committee, Raddatz and the other members work to recruit volunteers for El Camino Hospital.
After two serious health scares--emergency cancer surgery in 1995 and an acute anxiety attack in September 1999--Raddatz said he decided it was time to retire. He now volunteers Thursday mornings and said his experiences in the past few years have allowed him to get a better sense of his priorities.
"I've developed a sense that there's more to life than working seven days a week," Raddatz said. "Having had the medical wake-up calls, retiring and now volunteering, the whole spectrum gets you to reprioritize your life--to get a sense of priorities and refocus."
Raddatz said he enjoys keeping active, and gets satisfaction in helping sick people, especially having been in their situation.
Volunteering at El Camino Hospital also gives Raddatz the chance to work with his wife, Mary, who has been a volunteer there for 11 years. Although they do not share volunteer duties, Mary and Jim both enjoy what they do.
Mary began her volunteer career at El Camino delivering flowers to patients in the hospital. After taking a year off to care for her mother, Mary returned to the hospital and delivering flowers, and she also began working at the pre-op nurses' station, helping patients before their surgeries.
For the past six years, Mary has worked with the "pinkies," a team of approximately 27 women who put together small pillows for patients coming out of abdominal surgery, or who have just given birth, to ease the discomfort caused by coughing or using their stomach muscles. Mary is now the chairman for the group, and said they create approximately 100 pillows each month.
The women purchase the fabric and stuffing for the pillows, and meet for three hours each week to put the pillows together. Mary said they receive many thank you letters from patients who have used the pillows.
"Working with the ladies is marvelous," Mary said. "It's like a sewing circle, everybody pitches in in their own area."
Once a week, Mary also serves as the chairman of the day, overseeing all the volunteer services during her shift. Mary volunteers at El Camino on Wednesday mornings and all day on Thursdays. Besides the satisfaction of creating pillows with her fellow "pinkies," Mary said she enjoys the patient interaction she has at the nurses' station.
"It's so gratifying to be giving something to other people," Mary said.
Mary said she quit working after having her first child, and decided to start volunteering once her daughters were grown.
Mary and Jim both plan to continue their volunteer work at El Camino Hospital, and hope to encourage others to do the same.
For information about volunteering at El Camino Hospital, call 650.949.4875.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
