Abbott Northwestern and the 16,000 Paper Cranes

[Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, March 22, 2021] COVID hospital patients aren’t allowed visitors. They spend most of their days alone in bed, with brief swinging-door interruptions from doctors and nurses checking vitals and the disease’s progress. It’s uncomfortable, scary, and isolating to face a life-threatening illness without loved ones by their sides. The stark reality resonated with Kazuhiro Sekino, a hospital chaplain from Japan. When Sekino, a resident at Abbott Northwestern, was assigned to the hospital’s COVID unit last fall, he knew he wanted to find a way to connect with his patients.

“We all have to wear the personal protective equipment—the gown, gloves, mask—and I realized our communication was so limited,” he says. “It was difficult for my voice to reach the patients’ ears. I thought, I should make something the patients can see.”

Read the full story in the Mpls St. Paul Magazine online.