The Verrelli Family Foundation Recharge Room provides stress management for staff

A dramatic health experience led Aldo Verrelli to become a grateful patient of St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center ® and inspired the Verrelli family to fund a transformative room that will give all St. Francis staff a unique place to focus on stress management and self care.

Verrelli contracted COVID in March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Treated at a different hospital, he was placed in a medicallyinduced coma for 54 days. After waking, he relearned to walk and eat, and was nicknamed “The Miracle Guy” by that hospital’s staff for his journey to recovery. Over the next year, he continued to fight through further complications, and found himself at St. Francis twice for treatment. He praises the kind care he received from the nurses while he was there and wanted to find a way to support the hospital.

This past December, the Verrelli family cut the ribbon on the new St. Francis Recharge Room. The room provides a dedicated space where staff can go and recharge in a multi-sensory experience with beautiful imagery, relaxing scents and soothing music. The Recharge Room creates a calming oasis from the bustling energy of the hospital. Verrelli views the room as a place where nurses, doctors and other hospital staff can relax and feel some stress relief.

“We are so appreciative of Aldo and the entire Verrelli family for their leadership and foresight,” said St. Francis Hospital President Charles L. Lucore, MD, MBA. “The Recharge Room is a critical place for all St. Francis caregivers to focus on themselves and recharge.”