TowerTalk Volume 1, Issue Nr. 6, April 1980

              Vol- i-No.6   flprfj
Soinr Joseph Hospital, Denver, Colorado
Auxiliary
Celebrates 25th
A very special group of volunteers
will truly be "in the pink" during May,
as the Saint Joseph Hospital Auxiliary
celebrates its 25th year of service
at the hospital.
The group, which was founded on
May 27, 1955 with the purpose of
service to the hospital, fund raising
and public relations, will celebrate
its anniversary with a special mass
and dinner on May 14.
Currently, our auxiliary numbers
about 340, which includes inactive
members and bridge members �
those who are participants in the
auxiliary's bridge marathon.
Approximately 140 auxilians
actually work in the services in the
hospital � this number also includes
some male volunteers.
The many areas the busy auxilians
work in at Saint Joseph include
Admissions, the Ambulatory Care
Department, the blood bank,
flowers and patient services, mail
service, newborn hearing resting, the
gift shop and mobile gift carts, the
recovery waiting desk and tele-
phone information � placing calls
for the pastoral care department
and the medical staff.
In the early days of the auxiliary,
a contribution of $1,000 was con-
sidered a great amount. In the early
'70s, the auxiliary was the largesr
single contributor to the surgery/
ambulatory care addition, with a
donation of $160,000. Since then,
the auxiliary has pledged a total of
$370,000, of which $235,000 has
currently been contributed, to the
radiology/cardiovascular addition.
The auxiliary also pledges a $ 1,000
scholarship yearly in honor of Sister
Mary Asella, which is divided among
several employees each year. This
scholarship money comes from dues
paid by bridge members.
PLEASE SEE PAGE 2
Vicki Cardas and her new son, Craig.
Saint Joseph's
TTY - Helping
the Deaf to
Communicate
Usually, when a patient checks
into Saint Joseph to have a baby,
the joyous news of birth is
conveyed to others by the tele-
phone. When Vicki Cardas came
here last month to give birth to her
first child, she too used the phone,
but in an entirely different manner.
Vicki and her husband, Craig, are
both deaf, but they communicate
with a combination of lip reading,
sign language and speech. While
in Saint Joseph, Vicki also hod
the chance to use the Speech and
Hearing Department's new Tele
Typewriter � also known as a TTY �
an instrument that enables the deaf
to use the telephone for communica-
tion.
TTY's are still fairly new in the
Denver area, and currently Saint
Joseph is the only hospital in the
Midtown area that has any � one in
the Speech and Hearing Department
for patient use and one in
Emergency, which is used by deaf
people needing emergency care
or by those with health-related
questions.
Basically, the TTY is simple to use.
All the caller has to do is dial the
desired number, place the tele-
phone receiver on the machine and
type his or her message, which is
then received by another person with
a TTY.
Vicki and her husband, who do not
hove a TTY at home, were overjoyed
with being able to use ours. The
TTY enabled them to share their
good news with family and friends,
and also provided the opportunity for
those outside the hospital to coll
and talk with Vicki. Without the TTY,
Vicki would hove had to rely on
others, such as nursing staff or
family, to place and receive her tele-
phone messages. And, as you can
see by the picture above, little Craig
Cardas, Jr., has already learned to
sleep through the beep-beeping of
the machine while in use.