Four-legged booster

Children’s hospital lets the dogs back in as therapy visits resume in Oak Lawn

Dogs are once again visiting patients in Advocate Children’s Hospital Oak Lawn, which makes not only the children happy, but also their families, the staff and even the dogs themselves.

“He can tell when I’m getting ready,” Carol Aldridge said about Benny, her 3-yearold cavalier King Charles spaniel. “He is so excited he runs in circles.”

During the pandemic, hospital visits in general were limited, and some from volunteers and outside groups were prohibited.

But this spring, pet therapy teams were asked to resume visits to Advocate Children’s Hospital at 93rd Street and Kostner Avenue on the Advocate Christ Medical Center campus.

Among them were Carol Lis, of Burbank, and her dog, Shellie.

“She really missed it during COVID,” Lis said.

Before the pandemic, Lis would bring Shellie to visit patients in the hospital playroom, where the children could pet dogs, brush them, take them for walks or watch their tricks. Now they are making bedside visits to patient rooms.

“Shellie still loves it,” Lis said. “She loves the kids.”

The pet therapy teams are from Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy. Both Benny and Shellie went through Rainbow’s training program to become therapy dogs. The organization, based in Morton Grove, accepts dogs between the ages of 1 and 8 to start training.

“It’s very comprehensive training,” said Denise Chaveriat, supervisor of guest and volunteer services at Advocate Children’s Hospitals in Oak Lawn and Park Ridge. The dogs also practice in simulation labs before they meet patients in the hospital.

The lab “is designed for clinicians to practice what it’s like to be in various situations in the hospital,” Chaveriat said, such as “what to do if someone stops breathing or there are mass casualties.”

The dogs are brought into the simulation lab to experience the hospital setting and be exposed to the sounds and smells they may encounter in the hospital.

They have to tolerate elevators, medical equipment, and

ADVOCATE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL PHOTOS A young patient visits with Benny, a therapy dog, in April at Advocate Children’s Hospital Oak Lawn. The hospital began allowing therapy animal visits this spring for the first time since they were suspended amid the pandemic.

Benny, a 3-year-old cavalier King Charles spaniel, wears his vest and ID card that shows he is trained as a therapy dog while visiting a patient at Advocate Children’s Hospital Oak Lawn.