Having surgery can be a very stressful, even for us as adults, but imagine the amount of stress and terror it can give to kids, who don’t really know exactly what is actually going to happen and keep wondering why they are being surrounded by these strangers in blues scrubs and wires.
In Modesto, California, Doctors Medical Center have come up with this creative idea to help kids to pass that anxiety. They give their young patients a small, pink Volkswagen Beetle, or a black Mercedes, so they drive themselves to the surgery.
“Check this out! Doctors Medical center has made another creative addition to our pediatric surgical program. We brought our little black Mercedes last year, now we are introducing the pink Volkswagen Beetle! These cute rides are responsible for the transportation of our young patients to the operation room. The main goal here is to reduce the stress and anxiety, and make the surgery experience less intimidating and less scary for everyone, not a bad thing to have options, right?”
After the black Mercedes which was introduced last year to the hospital was successful, an employee and his family decided to giveaway the pink Beetle.
The hospital posted a video of one of their young patients riding the mini-car, writing: “with a young passenger in tow, Caroline takes our new pink Beetle for a ride! Doctors Medical Center has two little cars available now for our cute young surgical patients to ride into the operation room. And stress and anxiety can be seen melting away as soon as they get in the car.”
The hospital told PEOPLE: “ These cute little rides take our young patients to the operating room, The main goal here is to reduce the stress and anxiety, and make the surgery experience less intimidating and less scary for everyone”
“When our young patients find out they can go into the operating room riding in a cool little car, they immediately light up, and their fear melts away in most cases. And it seems that when parent’s see that their children are not in stress anymore, it puts them at ease.”
Users on Facebook seemed to love the idea behind the little cars.
One person commented on the following, “It is really sweet and wonderful to see a smile instead of worry/fear,”
“Way to go, this is so wonderful,” another user added
Several people offered to donate little mini-cars to the hospital to add to their fleet, with the hospital encouraging anyone with a donation to shoot them an email.
