With donated tablets, patients stay connected

When the donated tablets arrived April 6 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., courtesy of Feldman Automotive Group and the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, hundreds of patients were immediately reconnected with the outside world.

Brianna Allen, an intensive care unit nurse at the hospital, witnessed a mother able to virtually reunite with her newborn after being separated by safety measures put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. After two days of not seeing her baby, the mother was given one of the donated tablets to watch the baby during feedings and changings.

"It was like the baby was right in the room with her," Allen said.

Other patients are using the tablets to talk with and see family members at a time when no visitors are allowed in the hospital. Before the tablets arrived, "the patients felt really alone," Allen said.

The donations were kick-started by restaurant owner Nino Cutraro, a frequent contributor to the Beaumont Hospital Foundation. He began donating food to medical personnel at the hospital when the pandemic started.

When Cutraro heard Beaumont also was in need of tablets for patients to communicate, he called actor Mark Wahlberg, his partner in five Wahlburger locations in Michigan and Ohio. Wahlberg and his brother, Jim Wahlberg, who runs the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, decided to buy 500 tablets from Amazon and donate them to Beaumont on behalf of the foundation.

  Cutraro then approached Jay Feldman of Feldman Automotive Group, a 10-store dealership group with locations in Michigan and Ohio. Feldman also is a partner in the five Wahlburger restaurants, and he and Wahlberg own Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet in Columbus, Ohio.

Feldman donated another 590 tablets to the hospital. The devices are primarily Amazon Fire 7 tablets, costing about $50 each or around $55,000 in total.

The thought of patients not having family members or other advocates by their sides inspired Feldman and Wahlberg to try to help.

"To hear that people are dying alone and having babies alone, it's pretty moving for me," Feldman said.

Feldman and Wahlberg also are donating tablets to other hospitals near their dealership locations. That includes 100 tablets for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and 100 tablets for Providence Hospital locations in Southfield and Novi, Mich. They are giving 40 tablets to Friendship Circle, a nonprofit organization that helps people with special needs, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich.

"For us, it's a natural thing to be able to give if we are in a position to — to really give thanks to all of the brave men and women who are working," Wahlberg said.

At Beaumont, the ICU nurses are working 12-hour shifts up to five days a week, Allen said. That's well beyond their typical schedule of 12-hour shifts three days a week, she said, but the demand in the ICU is high right now.

When asked what else the hospital was in need of, Allen replied, "Positive thoughts and staying home."

Wahlberg told the Beaumont nurses in a Zoom video meeting that, as soon as he is able, he will come to the hospital to thank them in person.

"The real heroes of the world are out there every single day," he said. "And every time I can show my appreciation and gratitude, I jump at the opportunity."