An anesthesiologist who accidentally sent her diamond ring through the wash is rejoicing after her treasured piece of jewelry turned up at another hospital.

Dr. Radhika Ramasamy, a consultant anesthesiologist at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., put her diamond ring in her scrubs pocket in mid-December while she was doing an anesthetic procedure.

"I meant to put the ring back on afterward but ended up doing another procedure and forgot about it," Ramasamy told the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which reported the story on Feb. 8.

She didn't realize until the next day that the ring was gone, the doctor said.

And by "then it was the weekend, so I didn’t report it to my facilities team 'til the Monday," she said, adding that she "never expected to get it back" as she thought it would be destroyed by the washing machines, the foundation reported.

As luck would have it, not only was the ring not destroyed during the laundering process — it was still safely tucked into the scrubs.

On Dec. 19, five days after Ramasamy tucked the ring into her pocket, anesthetics registrar Suraj Shah was putting on his own scrubs — and found something unexpected.

"As I put the scrubs on, something clattered to the floor and a colleague spotted the ring and alerted me," Shah told the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Initially, Shah thought perhaps the ring belonged to one of the nurses at his hospital — the Royal Free Hospital in London.

"I put the word out through the nurse in charge," he said. "I checked with the doctors as well, but [heard] nothing, so I contacted our facilities team."

The facilities team at Royal Free Hospital reached out to the laundry service it used for its scrubs.

It was then that it learned that Ramasamy reported her ring missing.

The Royal Free Hospital is nearly 100 miles away from the West Suffolk Hospital.

A reunion was quickly arranged, and Ramasamy got back her ring — a gift from her husband — safe and sound.

As an upfront disclaimer, it's not all good news. Programmes like this are unlikely to become common in the near future due to large costs. It costs £1,355 each week for an elderly person to stay in these care homes. The cost of the nursery is £59 a day per child. This is not something that is accessible for most British folk.

Nonetheless, reading this article was a heartwarming experience and certainly gives insight into a solution which can enrich the lives of the elderly, young children, their families, and care home workers. I really hope to see programmes like this become more accessible and commonplace in the future.

My TL;DR:

Belong Chester claims to be the first older people’s “care setting” in the UK to include a fully integrated children’s research nursery, where children and residents come together every day.

Alan and his wife, Diana, both 82, often invite the children to their apartment to see their budgie, Joey. Diana is living with Alzheimer’s, but has “always loved children”, says Alan. “If she’s not having a good day I bring her down to the nursery and it’s as if someone has turned her switch back on. It’s that powerful.”

The change in some of the older residents is remarkable “We call it unfurling. We see it in some of our older people. When they arrive, they are a bit closed down. Then the children arrive and you can actually see their whole body unfurl.”

Interacting with the children is “incredibly important” for the men, thinks Dorothy Hulford, 87, a former university administrator who moved in with her 95-year-old husband, Frank, last year: “That generation weren’t involved with their children, back then, because they were at work. I see how much they enjoy being with the nursery children now.”

Many of the nursery parents think their children have become more caring by mixing with older people.

“Some of them use a wheelchair, some have limited speech or communication, and I think it has made Jacob more empathic,” one mother says, “I’m six months pregnant and I’ve been really ill, and when Jacob has seen me be unwell, he checks on me. I don’t know if that’s normal for a three-year-old, but Belong is definitely teaching the children they have to be a little bit careful around their grandfriends. One of them had a fall and was bruised and Jacob was asking how she was.”

Another mother says her daughter, Charlotte, aged three, has learned a lot from her grandfriends at nursery. “Charlotte’s language, compared to her peers from our antenatal group, is head and shoulders above. She uses words in the right context and talks in full sentences.”

My sibling has been working on this project for the last 18 months and it fully launched yesterday. It has now made the news! I'm immensely proud of them, their work will surely save many lives.

Anyone aged over 18 who has at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for testing. If you meet this criteria you can order a test here: https://jewishbrca.org/

Article TL;DR:

The tests check for faulty BRCA genes. People with Jewish ancestry are far more likely to have inherited faulty BRCA genes than the general population. There is a 50% chance of someone who has a faulty BRCA gene passing it on to any children.

Those born with impaired BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have a greater risk of developing breast, ovarian, prostate or pancreatic cancer.

The NHS England screening programme is part of a drive to detect cancer early. Tests can be ordered online and completed at home, by taking a sample of saliva and sending it off to a laboratory.