Soon after nurse Linda Ruggiero, PhD, BSN, started working in the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center cardiac catheterization lab in 2023, she got to see stents up close during a training opportunity-when normally they are sheathed in sterile packaging right up until they are implanted in a patient.
Ruggiero stared at the intricately woven mesh tubes. Small enough to fit inside a palm, the devices are inserted into blocked arteries to improve blood flow. Ruggiero, a weaver and a fiber artist outside of work, saw the little pieces of metal and thought: They're just so beautiful.
The nurse held back from asking if she could take one home. But Ruggiero knew she would recreate the stents in fiber. She perceived their power as art. Beyond being enamored with their physical structure, she was awed by the ability of a tiny piece of metal to have such a profound impact. And creatively, the stents also presented a device through which to explore her feelings around heartache and healing-both medical and emotional-in her patients and herself.
"I was really interested in this idea of something that was dead or broken being given a second chance and opening up," she said.
