Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network partnered with Marvel Comics to showcase the dedicated care the health system's nurses have been providing to COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic, releasing a comic book Dec. 3 titled "The Vitals: True Nurse Stories".
The comic book follows the story of The Vitals, superhero-esque nurses who work long hours away from their families and comfort families who cannot be near their hospitalized loved ones.
To roll out The Vitals, AHN released a video of its nurses' children reading the comic book.
AHN Chief Nurse Executive Claire Zangerle, RN, told the Beaver County Times that even though the comic book is rooted in the real-life experiences of eight AHN nurses working in Pittsburgh and Erie, the effort is not about any individual nurse. "It is about every AHN nurse, and every AHN employee," she said.
"At Marvel, we tell stories about heroes every day. But this story is special. It tells a story about our everyday heroes — the nurses and healthcare professionals working tirelessly and courageously to save lives," Dan Buckley, Marvel Entertainment's president, said in a news release. "Along with AHN, we are honored to help tell these stories, which we dedicate to the real heroes who are saving the world."