Waking up after surgery can be an overwhelming experience for a child, with unfamiliar surroundings, medical equipment and a bandage covering a fresh wound. At Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, paediatric surgeon Dr Robert Parry has found a simple way to make that moment a little brighter. After operating on children, Parry often reaches for coloured markers and turns their surgical dressings into personalised pieces of artwork. He has drawn everything from Snoopy and SpongeBob to superheroes, animals, cars and sports designs based on what his young patients love. Parry estimated in 2020 that he had personalised roughly 10,000 dressings during his career. The drawings take only a few minutes, but for many families they have become memorable reminders of kindness during an otherwise difficult medical experience.
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