Share Add Us On Google Add as a preferred source on Google AUGUSTA, Ga. ( InvestigateTV ) - Just before a major heart surgery at Piedmont Augusta, Akira Joy Hendricks had one urgent request.
She wanted to be baptized.
Hendricks, who was in advanced heart failure, was preparing to receive a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD — a mechanical pump used when the heart can no longer do enough work on its own.
After the device is implanted, patients can no longer be fully submerged in water, making the baptism time-sensitive.
So hospital staff got to work.
What followed was a scene leaders at Piedmont Augusta say was unlike anything they had seen before: an inflatable pool set up in the patient room bathroom, a family friend ready to serve as pastor, relatives gathered nearby, and hospital staff filling the room to witness the moment.
“There were three of them in a room trying to figure out a challenge and called me and said, ‘We’ve been working on this, can you help us?’” said Connie Melchert, executive director of operations at Piedmont Augusta. “So it was really, I mean, probably a dozen or so people working on it. And then said, ‘We’re going to try it.’ And so we had a plan and t...