KXAN (AUSTIN) — Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin received a new piece of equipment for its cardiovascular intensive care unit that will play a critical role in a patient’s recovery.

The hospital placed a brass bell in the hallway of its transplant center. Patients who have just gone through a heart transplant will get to ring the bell after their operation.

The bell signifies a moment for patients to celebrate all of the hard work and waiting leading up to their surgery, Dr. Raymond Bietry, a transplant cardiologist at Ascension Texas, explained.

It is a donation from Project Bell, a non-profit started by two sisters who went through their own experience with a bell ceremony when their mother went through treatment for a benign tumor in her brain. The sisters were inspired to donate ceremony bells to hospitals all over the world so patients and their families can be empowered and inspired.

Bell ceremonies are usually seen for cancer treatment patients, but Ascension Seton will start having celebrations for its heart transplant patients.

“It really is a Hallmark moment in these patients’ lives where they’re really able to celebrate what they have gone through and they have this new start with their new heart,” Dr. Bietry said.

The bell also allows hospital staff to celebrate along with their patients after successful treatments and surgeries, Dr. Bietry added.

The dedicatory ceremony for the bell happened at Ascension Seton Medical center Austin on Monday morning at 10 a.m.

Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin has completed 474 heart transplants since 1986. The most recent heart transplant patient, patient number 474, who’s name is Raul Rangel, was the first person to ring the bell in the hospital during the ceremony on Monday.