Patty Cornish and Hestia Deliver Kindness to Patients

Nurses are the pillar in the medical field. Clearly, Patty Cornish is an exemplary pillar, having a career as a Registered Nurse since 1978. Patty has worked in many different areas including intensive care, skilled rehab, oncology, and long-term care, to name a few. Her dedication to providing health care to people in need for the past forty-five years doesn't end with her nursing shift.

Each Saturday, Patty and her registered Pet Partners dog, Hestia, visit a local inpatient psych unit as well as other areas of the hospital. Hestia, a red Doberman, lives to be petted and is the perfect dog to interact with patients and staff. Patty notes that although prescribed medications help control and improve health issues, interacting with a therapy animal lowers blood pressure, stimulates endorphin release, and even lowers pulse rates. Patty has personally witnessed the lowering of pulse rates on a cardiac monitor when a therapy animal team visits a patient.

Patty's commitment to Pet Partners is now a strong twenty-year partnership. She has had four registered therapy dogs who have made countless visits to patients over two decades. Patty's involvement with Pet Partners extends beyond visiting patients. She promotes therapy animal visits in Michigan's Upper Peninsula as a handler instructor and a Pet Partners evaluator for team evaluators.

When Patty recently updated her estate plan, she decided to include Pet Partners in her estate plan, noting that "I can think of no better way to direct any monies I will have at death then to further the work of Pet Partners."

Not only is Pet Partners appreciative of this decision to ensure that Pet Partners continues well into the future through a legacy gift, but we are also grateful for the kindness and empathy she is delivering to patients with Hestia by her side.