Sometimes, laughter IS the best kind of medicine, from the Newspapers, translated…
This year, the N.T.U. Hospital branches had hired the clown doctors, with the professional performances, as well as certificates to practice medicine, there were, TWO clown doctors who passed through their trainings in France, and seven in-training clown doctors, using the simple musical instruments, as well as their funny looks, to bring more laughter, to the icy, cold, hospital wards.
This “Red Nosed Doctor Program” was set in place by the Theatre de la Sardine, awhile back, they were raising funds at Flying V, and the program’s purpose is to set up and make the clown doctors more well-known, in July, the doctors made their first appearances in the children’s cancer ward of NTU Children’s Hospital.
The Thoracic ICU’s department manager, Lu stated, other than performing, these clown doctors will also record the kids’ conditions, and based off of the children’s preferences, they’d perform to their likings, and accompanying the medical treatment options, making the ward filled up with laughter, and the kids could temporarily forget that they are ill with terminal illnesses.
The Theatre de la Sardine’s manager of development, Wen-Chang Yang said, that all the clown doctors are all professional actors and actresses, they’d been educated in the knowledge of health and wellbeing, and interned at the hospitals, and they must all have stable personality traits, and can put up with the things that are happening in the hospitals, then, they’re allowed, to perform at the hospitals for the patients, awhile ago, about a hundred came to the auditions, at the end, only seven members of the over a hundred who came to audition were asked to stay, especially when interacting with teenagers, they’d needed to show more cares and concerns, so the teens can open up, all of these, are other abilities the clown doctors needed to have outside their improv performance abilities.
“I can do magic!”, the six-year-old Shun-Shun gladly showed off how he turned the ribbons into a magician’s wand, and would often make faces at the clown doctors, it’s hard to imagine, that a year ago, he was taken here, because of back pain, and the doctors found neuroblastoma in him, after rounds of chemo, surgery, and stem cell transplants, along with other medical treatments, he’d slowly made his recovery, yesterday he returned back to the hospitals for his follow-up exams.
Shun-Shun’s mom said, that the process of her son’s illness was hard, but, he had a strong will to survive, by the third time he had chemo, Shun-Shun felt defeated, he hoped, that after this particular round of chemo was over, he could receive an award, so, she’d made a “Warrior Trophy” for her own son, and asked his kindergarten teacher to hand the award to him in class.
This sort of a happy atmosphere had infected the other children who were in the cancer ward, Shun-Shun’s mom and the other parents supported one another, made the trophies for the other children with cancer too, offered one another encouragements.
Lee Lu said, although he couldn’t stop the children from crying when they entered the hospital, but, the friendly treatment procedure environment can help the kids turn their experiences of getting ill into something more positive, after five years of hard work, he’d set up “the Republic of Emotions”, “Magical Journeys”, and other story settings with the hard wares, and had the clown doctors, the children’s medical counselors, along with other “software”, so the kids no longer associated their experiences of seeing the doctors as something that’s awful.
So, this, is treating the patients from a more humane angle, these children are already having a hard time, battling cancer, and, if the treatment environment is not lightened up a bit, how are they going to get through their hard treatment phases? Thus, the clown doctors were called, and, these clown doctors not only have the professional medical trainings, they’re also, very good, at bringing that smile, that laughter, to a sick child’s face too.