Just this March, the transplanted heart of Everett Gray began to fail. A few months after celebrating the fifth year of having his miracle heart, the eight-year-old boy was admitted at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, cardiac I.C.U.
The same heart that saved his life as a toddler battled with his immune system.
Everett was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It was a rare heart defect that made him a regular patient ever since his birth. Of course, no child likes to stay in the hospital, but Everett has found comfort in hospital visits from musicians, as well as bingo games with some kids.
According to Kelley Gray, his mother, it’s been his kind of coping mechanism. The kid believes that the kids’ hospitals are better than those for adults because they have clowns wandering the halls.
However, when the boy woke up this March for recovery, he didn’t see any clowns. Instead, the world seemingly changed in a night.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began this mid-March, it threatened the health care industry with a full-blown crisis. Because of this, the hospital limited the number of visitors allowed per patient. All activities that help patients make their stay in the hospital bearable has also been suspended.
Luckily, Izzy remained to be there.
Izzy is a 10-year old Golden Retriever weighing 70 pounds. She has a blonde coat and ears that are so soft.
The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Canines For Kids program has employed 15 full-time facility dogs, and Izzy is one of them. Ever since the pandemic happened, she and six more of her dog colleagues have reported to the hospital for their duty as essential workers.
Jennifer Arnold, the founder, as well as director of Canine Assistants, said that Izzy and her friends’ presence helps everybody in normalizing things, specifically the young patients.
The Georgia-based organization trains and supplies facility dogs to different children’s hospitals in the country. Since the coronavirus restrictions have been very hard on the kids, having a dog to count on is helpful.
Professor, a Goldendoodle, and the oldest in Mount Sinai’s Paws and Play program, wore a face shield to make the situation less frightening. Similarly, Moby, a Goldendoodle, showed Mount Sinai’s Central Park in a live tour to lessen the kids’ fears.
For patients who couldn’t leave their rooms because they are medically fragile, having a digital canine visitor help in a calming way. The said dogs send their support through some digital tablets that are connected to some robots on wheels.
With the dog’s presence, kids are reminded that relationships are still there, even things right now seemed to have changed.
Thanks to our friends from The New York Times for sharing the original story.