Small Wishes, Big Impact

Anicia and Paul Strambi and their dog, Dobby, named after the house elf in the Harry Potter series.

A program that offers peace and comfort at the end of life

Harry Potter brought them together — and Harry Potter helped them say goodbye.

In June, 41-year-old Paul Strambi arrived at Keck Hospital of USC with an aortic dissection, a life-threatening tear in the body’s main artery, the aorta. Despite successful surgery by our heart surgeons to repair the tear, Paul’s heart was too damaged to recover.

After two weeks in intensive care, with Paul on life support and his wife Anicia, 35, by his side, it became clear Paul would not survive. The care team asked Anicia if there was anything special he might want in his final days. Her answer: Something Harry Potter-themed.

The couple had met nine years earlier at a Halloween party — she was dressed as the witch Bellatrix Lestrange, he as Hagrid, the groundskeeper of the wizarding school Hogwarts. Later, Paul proposed to her in front of the Harry Potter castle at Universal Studios with a personalized wand inscribed with the words, “Will you marry me?”

The team transformed Paul’s hospital room into a Harry Potter shrine, decorating it with quotes, photos and banners from the series. They encouraged Anicia to further personalize the space with family pictures, surrounding him with familiar faces.

Paul also loved Irish music and whiskey. On his final day, while doctors and nurses stood by, Anicia played the love ballad “Raglan Road” by The Dubliners and raised a glass in Paul’s honor.

“It gave me so much comfort knowing the staff saw Paul not just as a patient, but as a human,” Anicia said. “They made his final moments peaceful and meaningful.”

Paul’s farewell was part of Three Wishes, a new Keck Hospital initiative where a team of doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains fulfills requests for patients at the end of life.

Most of these requests, often made on behalf of the patient by the family, are small and heartfelt. Wishes might be as simple as a favorite song, meal or keepsake, but they can transform the experience of dying for the patient and their loved ones into a celebration of life and a chance to create cherished memories.

Our staff also benefit. It is always difficult to lose a patient, but this initiative offers a sense of closure in the face of loss.

“As nurses, we give our hearts every day, and the Three Wishes project lets us give even more,” said Briana Stamps, a nurse who has championed this effort. “Knowing we’ve honored our patients with love and dignity during the hardest goodbyes gives us comfort.”

I am grateful to Briana and everyone who is working to add an extra layer of compassion into the end-of-life process — including Dr. Peter Phung, director of palliative medicine and supportive care with Keck Medicine, critical care physician Dr. Allison Ferreira, nursing manager Eric Ernst, and associate administrator of patient and family experience Kaitlin Stone,who oversee the program.

Launched in the cardiovascular thoracic intensive care unit, where some of our most critically ill patients are treated, the program aims to eventually expand to more patients across the health system.

As for Anicia, a few weeks after Paul’s passing, she received one final gift from his care team — a necklace made from his thumbprint.

“I wear it all the time,” she said. “It’s as if Paul is still with me.”