Trained K-9 dogs at a hospital in Chile are giving a different kind of therapy, both for the patients and the health workers who are now on the brink of exhaustion due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
FOUR K9 dogs—Labradors and Golden Retrievers both breeds known for their calm demeanor—trained at an early age to handle the stressful hospital environment with its bright light and constant machine noises, have been visiting a children’s hospital in Santiago, Chile to bring relief to sick children, especially during this pandemic.
At the Exequiel Gonzales Pediatrics Hospital in Chile’s capital there is flurry of excitement over the delegation of special visitors whose mission is to offer some reprieve from sickness and pain with their wagging tails and soulful eyes.
Named Pipa, Morron, Pepe and Chimu, these regular victims at the hospital do not just bring joy to the sick children (awaiting surgery) but to their parents and care providers and the medical staff as well, especially to those physically drained by months of battling Covid-19.
Sporting hospital visitor's tags with their names and mugshots, the motley crew -- two big dogs and two small -- make their way from bed to bed, sharing cuddles and sitting patiently through the often- inept attempts of small hands at brushing their coats.
For a moment, the little ones forget their pain, their bandages, and the incessant beeping of hospital electronics.
In one bed, a girl - her face bandaged but beaming with joy - brushes then hugs Morron, a black Labrador.
In the corridor a girl in a bright pink tracksuit gleefully walks two of the dogs on leashes -- or rather, they walk her.
"To see how a child's face lights up is what gives this meaning," said canine therapist Fernanda Romero of the Tregua Foundation, the group that organizes the visits.
Magical experience
"It is a near-magical experience," she told AFP. It helps reduce anxiety.
The foundation organizes hospital visits to calm young patients before and after surgery.
"We have noticed in more than 90 percent of the children that canine therapy helps to reduce anxiety," pediatric surgeon Yolanda Poulin told AFP.
"A child who is crying, fearful and hungry because they have had to fast for several hours -- the therapy helps them.
Frontliners also
During the pandemic the dogs have also been brought in to calm the hospital's doctors, nurses and technicians, exhausted after months of coronavirus duty.
The dogs have been shown to relieve stress among the adults as well as kids, said Nicole Faust, one of the canine therapists.
"Many say: 'How nice that the dog was here, I needed it, I was so stressed, I just had a super complicated patient, I just went through a hard experience'," she said.
"It has helped them a lot to forget work for a while," said Faust, concerned for the mental health of medical personnel in the frontline of the battle against a pandemic that has claimed some 35,000 lives in Chile.
Tags: #Chile, #animaltherapy, #dogs, #Covid19