Meet the Sharp Caregiver — Rudy Sanchez, Landscaper

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 Rudy Sanchez
Transcript

My name is Rudy Sanchez and I’m a landscaper and I work at Sharp Grossmont Hospital.  

We have about 300 rose bushes here at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, all shapes and sizes. Small blooms, big blooms. We have all different colors from white with little pink specks on them to pink roses to red roses. They smell great.

Roses are the symbol of caring, the universal symbol to show that you care. So we figured the patients in the hospital, who don’t have a chance to walk by the roses, would love these flowers.

One day our landscape team came together and we decided we wanted to share our roses with our patients. So we started putting them in little vases and handing them out to patients.

Roses love sunshine and it kind of brings that warm feeling to you. I don’t think roses can make you frown. Our patients love it. They smile. They thank you. Sometimes they give you hugs.

My favorite response to bringing flowers to a patient was a lady who was getting a heart transplant. And she had a pillow shaped as a heart with signatures from all the doctors and nurses that helped her. And when we brought these flowers to her, she wanted us to sign the heart as if we were as important as the doctors and the nurses who gave her care.

It’s an instant connection when you give somebody roses because they know that you’re actually caring for them. It can be just a single rose, but that single rose can really make that person’s day and it makes me feel like I’ve helped the doctors and nurses. It’s real nice, real beautiful.