Inside the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, nurses are going above and beyond for families whose loved ones have died. When patients near their final breaths, nurses print off the patient’s last few steady heartbeats, put the sheet of paper in a glass bottle, and attach a ribbon with the patient’s name.

“My hope is that when families look at that little keepsake, it reminds them of all the precious, happy memories that define their loved one,” says Hira Malik, RN, a clinical nurse in the MICU at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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