Surgery and hospital stays are scary things to face as a child. At the Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio, there's an incredible surgeon doing his part to ease young minds. His name is Dr. Robert Parry. Not only is he a pediatric surgeon, but he's also a self-taught artist. You may think there aren't a lot of opportunities for those skills to overlap, but Dr. Parry has found a way.
Dr. Parry has been working at the hospital since 2011 and performed over 10,000 surgeries. Each time, he takes the opportunity to dress up a child's wound dressing by drawing something special for them on it. It takes him just five minutes, but for the patients, it makes all the difference.
Dr. Parry's artistic skills were highlighted as one of the hospital's Top 10 Moments of the Decade. While it's quite an honor, it pales in comparison to the praise Dr. Parry receives from patients and parents alike.
There are special people who are truly called to their work. Dr. Robert Parry is without a doubt one of them. The pediatric surgeon, who has some serious art skills, has brought his medical and art skills together to help his patients thrive.
In his nearly nine years at Akron Children's Hospital, Dr. Parry has found a way to take the children's focus off their surgical scars. He asks each child what kind of drawing they'd like on their post-surgical dressings. Then he makes it happen.
"There is an incredible amount of stress any time a child is ill," Christina Potts Whipkey noted to CNN. Dr. Parry operated on her daughter nine years ago.
"When there is a surgical schedule, parents work hard to hide their fear of the procedure, the financial stress of the situation, and their terror of something going wrong."
In his time at the hospital, Dr. Parry has performed more than 10,000 surgeries. That's more than 10,000 drawings to help put little minds at ease. As for the most popular requests, he gets a lot of asks for Disney characters and sports team logos.
The drawings take Dr. Parry only about five minutes. The memories last patients and families a lifetime.
"It's been a pretty special thing, for everyone," Dr. Parry explained. "It's fun for me to do, the parents and the children really enjoy it and even the whole medical staff likes to get in on it."
"Whenever one of my kids arrive in the recovery room, the nurses all like to take a look to see what dressing the child got," Dr. Parry continued. It makes the process just a little easier for all involved. "I think it just makes everyone, me included, feel good."
Samantha Manning got to experience Dr. Parry at work. He operated on her 11-month-old daughter, Rose, in 2014. "We had no idea ahead of time that this was Dr. Parry's special trademark," she recalled.
"We were really moved by it," she continued. "The rose garden was symbolic of our larger experience with Dr. Parry and the hospital overall, taking the extra step to do those small, little gestures. It shows how much they care and really lifted our spirits."
As for what inspired Dr. Parry to provide the personal touch, he revealed that another doctor's similar practice gave him the idea. Dr. Perry Stafford would cut dressing into fun shapes for patients at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, during Dr. Parry's residency.
"It was easy to see that the patients and their parents really enjoyed them," he noted to Cafe Mom.
Dr. Parry has also mastered the art of drawing on the dressings without compromising their sterility. "I use Telfa dressings (not an ideal art medium) and cut out the outline of the image freehand," he explains.
"Then I color it in using Sharpies. It doesn’t go directly on the wound — it’s protected by a Tegaderm (plastic) dressing."
The drawings are so popular that they were included in Akron Children's Hospital's Top 10 Moments of the Decade.
"Although the pen may not be mightier than the scalpel, pediatric surgeon Robert Parry always takes a moment to make sure a scar isn't the only lasting memory of a child's surgical procedure," the hospital shared in a video posted to Facebook. "Dr. Parry estimates he has created dressing drawings for more than 10,000 patients."
It seems like something so small, but it makes a huge difference to his patients. Kids are excited to get through surgery and see the drawings. Instead of facing scary scars that won't always fade, they have a moment of joy to relish.
For kids who will have to have multiple surgeries over their lives, it's even more significant. It shows that being in a hospital doesn't have to be scary. The people there care enough to preserve all the little details of childhood that some of these children can't experience otherwise.
Dr. Robert Parry is a medical professional who provides not only tremendous service but also tremendous inspiration. We could all use a more personal touch from the doctors we work with. It's so important to feel like more than a name and a chart but rather a person with heart and hobbies and, thanks to Dr. Parry, hope.
