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By NICOLE MORGAN, The Virginian-Pilot

PORTSMOUTH — Staff members at the new Bon Secours Heart Institute expect to see their first patient by mid-November. Sunday, they were preparing to heal.

They stood in line beneath a white tent outside the new center with their palms upward. They waited for nuns to anoint them in a blessing of the hands ceremony.

The comfort they plan to offer patients is “continuing the healing mission of Jesus,” said Sister Rita Thomas, president of the Bon Secours Hampton Roads Board of Directors. And for this, Sister Thomas said, staff members of the Catholic-based health center asked for God’s blessing.

DiLorenzo blesses an operating room with holy water at the heart institute Sunday.
Nuns also anointed staff members as part of a blessing of the hands ceremony Sunday.

“Oil is a sign of blessing and healing in our faith tradition,” said Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, which covers Hampton Roads. DiLorenzo led the ceremony, attended by about 100 people. “Oil was used to anoint kings and bring comfort to the sick,” he said. “Using this great symbol again today, we ask God’s blessing on those who will carry out the work of healing in this new heart center.”

When DiLorenzo finished his homily, Sister Thomas soon dipped her finger in a crystal dish. She dabbed a circle of oil about the size of a penny in the hands of heart institute staff.

Dr. Joseph Auteri, center medical director, said that in more than 12 years as a heart surgeon, it was the first time his hands had been blessed.

“God is in this place. I truly believe that,” said Auteri, who came to Bon Secours after being medical director at the Scottsdale Heart Center in Arizona. “And I think we’ll take care of patients with that in mind.”

The cardiac center will have the capacity to serve 350 patients a year, said hospital spokeswoman Lynne Zultanky. The $20 million, 40,000-squarefoot facility is part of the Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center on High Street. Construction began in August last year, and the center was ready to open last week, Zultanky said.

While there are other heart centers in the region, Zultanky said, Bon Secours is especially reaching out to residents of Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Franklin and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties. Residents of those localities combined suffer from heart disease at a greater rate than residents in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, she said.

Part of the reason is a lack of access to health care. Another factor can be a difference in lifestyles, she said, such as not exercising about 150 minutes a week or using too much salt, butter or lard in foods.

Genetics also are a factor, said Ellen Lengel, a registered nurse over the cardiac center operations. Obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure also can lead to heart disease, she said.

White women about 70 years old and black women of any age are at the greatest risk of heart disease in Hampton Roads, according to hospital data.

Women are often busy making sure everyone else in their families is OK, Lengel said.

“We take care of ourselves last,” she said.

And, she said, while men experiencing a heart attack may feel chest, back or jaw pain, some women have reported symptoms as slight as an ache in a finger or feeling like a bra is too tight.

Everyone should begin talking to their doctors as early as age 30 about risk factors associated with heart disease and about managing stress, Lengel said.

Reach Nicole Morgan at (757) 446-2443 or nicole.morgan@pilotononline.com

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Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500, includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.

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