Celebrating Love and Comfort: A Valentine’s Day Delight With Packard Paws Canines

On this Valentine’s Day, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford was full of further love and heat, thanks to a few particular four-legged well being care suppliers from the Stanford Drugs Youngsters’s Well being Packard Paws facility dog program. Donatella, affectionately referred to as “Donnie”; Margie; and newcomer Courtney introduced playing cards, balloons, and stomach rubs, delivering heartfelt moments of pleasure and luxury to sufferers, households, and Stanford Drugs well being care workforce members.

Donatella has been sharing love at Packard Youngsters’s for eight years, whereas 3-year-old Courtney is simply beginning her new profession journey. These Labrador retrievers transcend typical visits by providing pet-assisted remedy and offering a novel therapeutic contact that calms sufferers and fosters a bond full of unconditional love and luxury.

“The canines join with our sufferers and provides them a unique type of bodily contact and connection that may’t be replicated by different therapies,” mentioned Molly Marchand, CCLS, Donnie’s handler and Child Life Specialist.

Past Valentine’s Day celebrations, the therapy-assisted facility canines play essential roles in aiding restoration and enhancing affected person well-being. Their therapeutic presence encourages affected person motion post-surgery and affords comforting companionship throughout chemotherapy. Every canine sees a median of 300 sufferers per yr, delivering therapeutic worth to everybody they meet.

Bringing cheer and lifting spirits

The shock visits have been significantly emotional for sufferers like Ashlan Trejo and Victoria Fernandez, whose smiles widened as they acquired Valentine’s playing cards and stuffed Labrador dolls from the canines. “It made my day so a lot better,” mentioned Victoria. “For me, it’s very therapeutic as a result of I even have canines at dwelling and miss them a lot. This go to helps loads.”

It’s not simply the sufferers who profit from these particular visits. The care workforce members across the hospital additionally obtain much-needed encouragement, particularly after difficult days. “It offers them perspective and which means, significantly after the lack of a affected person or a trauma,” mentioned Marchand. “For some, having the canines to pet actually helps them by these days that generally really feel actually, actually lengthy.”

Donatella, Margie, and Courtney, expertly educated by Canine Companions, are instrumental members of the Stanford Drugs group, with the canine group offering the retrievers to Stanford Drugs for gratis. Final yr Packard Paws accomplished over 1200 visits. They make an enduring impression on lives, spreading pleasure and fostering therapeutic, one paw and heartbeat at a time.

Learn more about the Packard Paws facility dog program >