Alex Paul
For the last century, doctors and scientists have developed outstanding technological equipment to provide medical care and extend life for millions around the world.
Now, studies show that those technological breakthroughs can be greatly enhanced by treating both doctor and patient with the soothing effects of nature.
That’s what Hoichi and Koichi Kurisu of Kurisu International, told members of the Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital M Club Tuesday evening. The father-son team is complete working on an innovative, and to some, a bit controversial, healing garden at the small hospital that serves East Linn county.
For two months, Kurisu International employees, guided by the Kurisu family, have transformed a portion of the hospital grounds, bordered on four sides by buildings, into a living, thriving garden, complete with huge boulders, pathways and large water features and ponds.
For Hoichi Kurisu, the garden is one of many that have earned him international acclaim over the years, including recognition from President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush, the elder.
It is also a completion of a circle that began some 40 years ago, when Lebanon CPA Bill Rauch was a college student in Japan and lived with the Kurisu family. Their friendship has spanned the decades and now includes a shared garden. Rauch chairs the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation.
The elder Kurisu said he remembers living through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as a small child.
“We were told that nothing would again live there for 100 years,” Kurisu said.
But although 250,000 lives were lost and the city was flattened “like a potato pancake”, a year after the blast, the Japanese were exhilarated to find a single bean sprout growing.
That single sprout signified the force of nature that is beyond man’s control.
“There were screams of joy from those who survived,” Kurisu said.
Kurisu said the vision of Bill Rauch to seek support and develop the garden was like “a bean seed had sprouted in his heart.”
“It is important that a bean seed be nurtured unselfishly, that it not be savaged, that it be stored by love and that see will grow and prosper,” Kurisu said. “That seed is growing at Lebanon Community Hospital right here.”
Kurisu predicted the garden will benefit many in the county but will also bring nationwide recognition to the facility.
“Scientists have created tremendous treatment programs for the sake of human happiness but we’ve closed the door to the human heart, to the human spirit,” Kurisu said. “Hospitals should not only be a place to cure but they must become a place to share joy, no fear, encouragement, not aggression. You must give hope for new life, like the bean sprout after the bombing.”
Kurisu’s son, Koichi, said the use of nature in the healing process can help curb the ever growing cost of health care nationwide.
He said that in 1960, health care accounted for 5% of the total Gross Domestic Product. That number tripled to 15% in 2002.
In 2004, some $15 billion is expected to be spent on new hospitals with the total value of health care facilities topping $200 billion by 2010.
Studies show, the younger Kurisu said, that when nature complements medical treatments, hospital stays are cut in duration, there are fewer complaints from patients and the need for pain killing medication drops significantly.
“Stress in hospitals impacts everyone, the patient, the staff and families,” Kurisu said. “Stress in the workplace carries a $300 billion price tag. It creates medical costs that are 46% higher and adds $600 per employee cost to the company.”
Kurisu said it is widely accepted that there a shortage of nurses nationwide, but says there are actually many trained nurses, they simply don’t want to work in high-stress jobs.
Kurisu said that while some persons may doubt the value of the garden, “You really can’t afford not to build it. You are riding the crest of a wave of the best thinking in the country.”
In addition to cutting recovery times in half in some studies, the garden can be used to bring the community to the hospital in a non-threatening way, such as tours for students or for weddings.