Getting ready for surgery is a nerve-wracking experience for anyone, but especially so if you are a child. But a paediatric surgeon in Brazil has come up with a novel way of putting his patients at ease – by dressing them in superhero costumes.
Dr Leandro Brandao, who works in a hospital in Divinopolis in southeastern Brazil, gives children the costumes to dress in to help take away some of the fear of leaving their parents behind when they go off to have their operation.
He posted a video on Instagram (@otorrino.leandro) that quickly went viral, as it shows how positively the children react to the costumes, and the reactions they get from hospital staff on the way to the operating theatre.
Dr Brandao came up with the idea after having been long been bothered by the trauma some children experienced when he had to take them from their parents’ arms to go to the theatre.
Now, he gives the child the costume – usually one of the major superheroes from the Marvel and DC canon – before they are sedated so they can dress up. It provides a distraction for them, as well as having something more welcoming than a surgical gown.
The children then can play at being superheroes and can even ‘fly’ on the doctor’s shoulders to the operating room.
It has a largely positive effect too – helping children to relax before their surgery. It also helps the children’s parents too as they don’t have to suffer seeing their child being upset before surgery.
Dr Brandao sources the superhero costumes online for an affordable price, which means that the children can then keep the costumes once they have had their surgery and leave hospital as a memento of their time.
“I really love my job so much!” Dr Brandao said in response to Pubity’s reposting of the video.
