Lutheran Children’s Hospital and unique ways to spread holiday cheer to pediatric patients

Press release from the Lutheran Children’s Hospital:

Lutheran Children’s Hospital and Special Guests Find Unique Ways
to Spread Holiday Cheer to Pediatric Patients

Visiting hospitalized children, especially during the holidays, is an important way many area residents give back to the community. Pediatric patients at Lutheran Children’s Hospital are fortunate to be on the receiving end of many of these kind gestures.

For kids who are in isolation or too sick to leave their rooms, caregivers at Lutheran Children’s Hospital have come up with a unique way to include as many of them as possible when special guests and groups drop by. A video camera has been set up in the pediatric playroom where many interesting activities take place during the year. Through a closed-circuit system, pediatric patients can now see and hear everything that’s happening via the television in their room.

The closed-circuit system is expected to be used frequently whenever visitation is restricted, like it was during the recent wave of probable H1N1 cases, but it also provides guests an opportunity to make general presentations to multiple patients before they visit individual rooms.

The camera has already been used several times this holiday season and more broadcasts are expected between now and Christmas.

There are two special activities this week:

• Santa Claus and elves from General Electric will make their annual trip to Lutheran Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 11 a.m. to distribute teddy bears. Pediatric patients who are not able to accept visitors that day will receive a special greeting from Santa via closed-circuit television before their nurse delivers the bear. Santa and the elves will then head off to greet other hospitalized children in their rooms.
• Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo volunteer Ken Prather visits Lutheran Children’s Hospital twice a month with small animals for the kids to see up close. His next appearance will take place Wednesday, Dec. 9, beginning at 9 a.m. Ken will also be using the closed-circuit system if necessary to describe the critters and where they come from.

Lutheran Children’s Hospital website

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