From the Heart: The Housekeeper | Cincinnati Children's

Описание: http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org

It’s not often that the housekeeper is the hero of a story at a hospital.

But in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Cincinnati Children’s, one housekeeper ranks up there as the highest of a little boy’s caregivers.

The kids call him “KJ.”

Ki-Jana “KJ” Upshaw, Floor Tech, Environmental Services: “On my floor, I pull linen from all 82 rooms. I kept running into him a couple days, and I noticed that he had a lot of Legos in his room, and he likes to build them. He kept showing me all his cool things that he had did. And I eventually ending up grabbing his laundry and going right next door, and there was another kid about the same age as him, doing Legos, and I told them both that they should eventually show each other their Legos at the door.”

The boys, Cohen Bramlee and Keegan Atkins, couldn’t just go to the playroom together or hang out in each other’s rooms because of isolation restrictions in the cancer unit.

KJ: “The only possible way this can happen is them opening up their blinds and kind of looking at each other through their blinds.”

With KJ’s help, the boys forged a friendship.

Carrie Bramlee, Cohen’s Mom: “It was kind of like a daily report on what the other child was building, and so he kind of enjoyed getting to hear about what someone else had in common with him while he was here, and just getting to talk to KJ, because, you know, our world is pretty small right now. We are in that room, and Cohen was in isolation, he couldn’t leave, and it was just a bright spot in a day when he would come in and just sit there and chat with Cohen for a second.”

KJ didn’t even know it, but he was bringing the outside world in a little bit for a 7-year-old.

By the time Keagan got to go home from the hospital, Cohen’s counts were up, and he was able to wear a mask and walk across the hall to Keagan’s door and give him a Lego set as a farewell gift.

Carrie: “It was a little reminder of the fun that they had between each other.”

The boys’ moms are looking forward to planning a playdate for when both boys are out of the hospital and well enough to get together.

Carrie: “Everyone is an important role player in these childrens’ lives. It’s not just doctors and nurses that come in, and therapists. Everybody who enters that room is part of our journey and our world. And so, when you see someone who didn’t have to take the time to actually engage and make you feel a little bit brighter about your day, and they do, it just means a lot.”

In a children’s hospital, smiles are as important in the healing process as any kind of medicine.

And sometimes, it’s the housekeeper who deserves the credit for making kids feel better.