Festive cheer the medicine for children
FIRST-time visitors to the children’s ward on floor four of the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled upon Santa’s grotto.
From beneath a sea of tinsel and Christmas decorations, nurses at the reception desk extend a warm welcome to anyone who enters through the doors of the 25-bed ward.
With not a whiff of white starch around, nurses are clad in cheery, teddy-patterned scrubs, all part of a game plan designed to make a child’s hospital stay as agreeable as possible.
The entire ward is a kaleidoscope of colour — familiar cartoon characters peer down from the walls and Santa jostles with Homer Simpson for pride of place. The overall atmosphere, beneath the obvious sickness of some of the children, is one of festive cheer.
Consultant paediatric neurologist Olivia O’Mahony is a calming presence. The Cork woman returned from Vancouver, Canada, in December 2003, right after the children’s ward had been given a face-lift. “We are under pressure at this time of year for single-bed rooms,” she says, “because it’s the gastro season and some of the children who come in need to be kept isolated.
“Traditionally we need more cots than beds to treat babies with gastro or bronchiolitis. We have a few surgical patients as well,” says Dr O’Mahony.
Some of the children are unperturbed by their illness. Little Jack O’Leary from Riverstown, Glanmire, Co Cork, was charging up and down the corridor, pushing a set of wheels. His grandmother, Anne, also from Riverstown, watched from a chair nearby.
“He’s a lively character,” she remarked. “We hope to have him home shortly. It’s nice for the family to be together over the festive season.”
Yetunde Olayemi, just short of her fifth birthday, is a ball of mischief. Irish-born, her mother is Nigerian, and she watches her daughter’s progress from a bedside chair. The rooms are equipped with couch beds to let parents stay on the wards. “It’s important for the small ones that their parents are around,” says Dr O’Mahony.
Next door, 10-year-old Jodie Hayes from Dublin Pike, Co Cork, has only been in for a day. “It’s lovely here,” she says, digging into her dinner with relish. “The nurses are really nice.”
Bubbly Sinéad Favier, from Glenflesk, Killarney, Co Kerry, is the ward sister. She worked the night-time shift on Christmas Day.
“It’s a nice time to work,” she says. “It can be very busy and it’s a skeleton staff, but the atmosphere is great and everyone is in great form.”
Dr O’Mahony, who worked for Christmas 2006, was off this year, but another consultant was on duty on Christmas Day. Their policy is to try and ensure that as many children as possible get to spend Christmas Day at home. The consultant carries out a ward round early in the morning to assess who is fit to leave and some children travel home with drips in place to return later that evening.
For those who don’t make it home, Santa comes to the ward and there is a special Christmas dinner.
“It’s actually quite a nice day in the hospital,” says Dr O’ Mahony.
The run-up to Christmas is usually the most hectic part of the holiday period. A ward party also takes place the week before the main event. This involves Santa, the staff, in-patients and other children unfortunate enough to fit in the category of frequent attenders of the paediatric ward. Their siblings are also invited. These patients include children with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder more common among the immigrant population.
These children are seen by paediatric haematologist Dr Clodagh Ryan, who also looks after the Mercy’s Leukaemia unit. “We treat about 25 children with sickle cell,” Dr Ryan says, “mainly from Africa.” Dr Ryan says they try and tailor treatment as much as possible to ensure children are at home for Christmas Day.
Dr O’Mahony, who divides her time between general paediatrics and paediatric neurology — including the diagnosis and treatment of children with epilepsy, muscle disorder, neurodegenerative disease, headaches — says the turnover of patients is fast and they try to keep the children out of hospital as much as possible.
“For example, the day case rates were up 100% this year. That’s the way it should be, to try and minimise the impact of a child’s illness on family life,” says Dr O’Mahony.
Spending the festive period in hospital is not on any child’s wish list, but at MUH staff try to ensure the experience is as painless as possible.
