When you hear your child is sick, a feeling of hopelessness hits a lot of parents.
But the truth is, they don’t have to feel that way.
Thanks to some very special people at one Arizona hospital, kids and their families are learning how to face the disease head-on and not be afraid.
“They just comforted me and they made me feel a lot better knowing that I’m not alone and I will never be alone and that they’re here to support as much as my family,” said Syrina Gonzales, who is a patient at Banner Children’s on the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center campus in Glendale, Ariz. “They’re my hospital family.”
The child life specialists at the Banner Thunderbird campus are Gonzales’ second family.
“I started to cry,” Gonzales said. “I was scared. No one wants to have cancer.”
Gonzales was diagnosed with a form of leukemia back in April. She’s been getting in- and outpatient chemotherapy.
This next round of treatments will keep the 18-year-old at the hospital for almost a month as she prepares for a bone marrow transplant.
“Right now we’re looking for a donor,” Gonzales said. “It would be great for a Hispanic donor to go down to the registry and at least get tested and try to help save somebody.”
“We do just about anything to make it special for them,” said Wendy Pauker, child life manager at the hospital. “So like with Gonzales she came in here and her room was completely decorated.
“The main thing that we do here is we help prepare the kids for surgeries,” she continued.
“We do a lot of diversion, education if they’re coming in for surgery,” Pauker said. “They will come in early and we’ll do a pre-op tour with them, getting them familiar with the sounds, smells of the hospital, questions that the child might have in a way that they understand.”
Helping young people like Gonzales through the medical process is only the beginning of what a child life specialist does for the kids and their families.
“I’ve been doing it for 21 years,” Pauker said. “I can’t even picture myself doing anything different.
“When I came over here as the manager and growing the program out here, it’s like every day you leave and you feel you’ve accomplished something,” she continued.
“They distract us from our sickness, [help us] enjoy our time here as much as possible and feel comfortable,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the child life specialists give her and others at the hospital hope, but for Pauker, it’s the other way around.
“Once I get better and get my education, I would like to be a specialist in child life,” Gonzales said.
“Child life is what really makes a children’s hospital. It’s what makes the program,” Pauker said.
For more information on the child life program at Banner Children’s on the Banner Thunderbird campus visit www.bannerhealth.com
