Garden Offers Respite for Patients

By Amelia Quiroga

VERMILLION, S.D. — A red 1941 pickup sits in the middle of the Healing Garden at the Sanford Vermillion Medical Center. The truck’s flatbed complements the raised cedar flowerbed in casings that hold newly cultivated foliage waiting to bloom. A small, red barn stands at the other end, accompanied by a wooden ramada for sitting under on a warm, sunny day.

The garden is intended to give patients, visitors and staff a place for therapeutic healing and meditation. It was originally designed for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, said Gene Lunn, director of the Dakota Hospital Foundation. The 6,000-square-foot garden, unveiled Monday, is reminiscent of rural life of past decades and helps patients, many of whom were once farmers, regain some memory, he said.

One example involved a nursing home resident who was formerly a truck driver. He became worried when the garden truck’s lights came on at night to illuminate the garden, Lunn said.

“That was our first clue as to how this healing garden really works,” Lunn said. “Here’s someone sitting in the dementia unit and all of a sudden he can see that truck out there, and it brings back memories from years ago,” he said.

The garden’s healing concept also helps in rehabilitation therapy from strokes, joint replacement, heart failure and other conditions needing therapy, said Bob Brockevelt, Sanford’s rehabilitation manager. Strolling around the garden helps the patients’ motor and function skills because the patients stop, reach out and bend over, he said. The garden helps the patients’ motivation to regain strength, so they can get back home, Brockevelt said.

“They relate that to when they were at a better time in their lives,” he said. “It’s just plain motivation.”

The garden is also a place of interaction between the patients and therapists. “The more interaction they get with you, the more they trust you,” Brockevelt said. Walking around the garden and talking about the plants helps patients develop a relationship with the therapists.

The garden’s ribbon cutting ceremony was held June 16, and included speeches by Gerald Yutrzenka, president of Dakota Hospital Foundation board of directors; Amy Thiesse, director of nursing of Sanford Care Center Vermillion; Gene Lunn, Dakota Hospital Foundation director; and Timothy J. Tracy, CEO of Sanford Vermillion Medical Center.

The idea for the garden was first conceived in 2004. Funding for the garden began with a contribution from a family whose relative had received care at Sanford, Lunn said. From there, the hospital raised money from other sources.
The garden is open to the community, Lunn said.