The shaggy giant was even hired at the hospital.
Doctors say that in order to recover, it is not enough to follow the prescribed regimen, take medications and undergo procedures. You still need to really want to get well. Want to live. This is a huge problem – people are so tired of fighting the disease that they simply surrender to it. And not only adults. Little patients also get tired of living – forever entangled in tubes, exhausted by endless painful procedures … In one of the hospitals in Australia, they found a “medicine” that helps babies start smiling again.
The “medicine” is Ralph. This is a huge furry dog - a giant Giant Schnauzer, to be exact. He has been with the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne for two years now. He walks along the corridors with a badge attached to his collar. And Ralph’s reputation – you will not believe – is a real miracle worker.
The thing is that the dog has a magical effect on children. Ralph doesn’t seem to be doing anything special. He just visits the kids – every Monday he walks around the wards.
“He comes to someone in the ward, sits next to someone during chemotherapy sessions,” the hospital says. And children, they say, endure the hardest procedures easier when a furry “doctor” is nearby.
Ralph made 15-month-old Zach smile. The boy was born with a rare genetic disease – his body is unable to assimilate protein. A regular piece of chicken can kill a baby. Treatment is difficult and painful. You have to visit the hospital almost more often than at home. But there is Ralph here. It makes little Zach’s life a little easier.
So is the life of two-year-old Claire. Five days ago, she underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her kidney.
“As soon as Ralph entered the room, Claire saw him and… got up! She very slowly, very hesitantly rose to her feet. But she did. And then she went to the dog – staggering, but she went! I couldn’t even say a word out of surprise, ”says Mary McPhee, Claire’s mom.
Mary still cannot believe that her daughter got to her feet – and even so quickly. But he knows for sure – now everything will be fine with them.
By the way, Ralph is not the only such dog that helps seriously ill people. There is also the retriever Eddie. He also “works” in the pediatric ward. True, in another hospital. Every day the dog makes rounds of the wards. And he always takes his bag of toys with him. And here is the Chihuahua Lorth Smith. They continued Ralph’s case. He himself died of old age two years ago. And his memory was immortalized – now there is a statue of Ralph in the hospital lobby.