Helping people heal
Memorial Hermann pet program brings smiles to hospital patients in The Woodlands
As six-year-old Noah Padron sat on his hospital bed with tubes taped to one arm and a stuffed giraffe cuddled in the other, he barely took his eyes from the iPad in his lap — until Sophie walked into the room.
“Mommy, turn off the iPad!” he said, beaming and handing the tablet to his mother, Cathy Padron.
“That’s a first,” she said, laughing.
Sophie, a 125-pound, jet-black Great Dane sporting a bedazzled, pink collar and a pearl necklace, sniffed curiously around the room before sauntering over to Noah’s bedside and greeting him by placidly resting her head on his lap for a moment.
That’s her version of a hug since she has been trained not to lick, said Dean Nistetter, who is Sophie’s handler.
Sophie is a speciallytrained therapy dog — one of 12 that take turns visiting patients at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital six days a week as part of a pet therapy program.
The therapy dogs are trained to be calm and friendly, to ignore loud noises and not to eat or lick anything that they
aren’t supposed to. Sophie knows a few tricks, too. Not only does she “hug” rather than lick, but she gives handshakes and can show off her six-foot-tall frame by standing with her front paws on Nistetter’s shoulders. Nistetter said that Sophie makes a special connection with critical patients and has a knack for calming nerves.
As Sophie makes her rounds at the hospital, she draws smiles, stares and lots of petting from, not only patients, but also nurses — who know her by name and even sneak her treats, occasionally — physicians and visitors. One man who got on the elevator with Sophie was so taken by her and how she reminded him of the Great Dane he had as a child, that he accidentally got off on the wrong floor. One toddler approached her with awe as his caretaker joked about how the child could ride her as if she were a horse. She also had to take a detour at nearly every nurses’ station to appease the adoring staff.
For many patients, the therapy dog reminds them of their own pet at home.
Warren Lawless, who had been in the hospital for a week when Sophie came to visit him, lit up when he saw that his visitor was a black Great Dane, just like his own pup. He even slipped and called Sophie his dog’s name, Faith.
“Ours thinks she’s a lap dog,” Lawless said, laughing at how the enormous animal tries to cuddle up on the couch with his wife.
“Y’all made our day,” Lawless’s wife, Gwen said.
And the visit from the dog can bring more benefits than a smile. Nistetter said he sometimes sees a patient’s vital signs improve when interacting with Sophie.
“The medical benefits are well-documented,” said Catherine Giegerich, chief nursing officer for Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital. “It lessens anxiety ... takes a tense, scary situation and brings a level of comfort they can’t get through medication.”
In addition to the emotional therapy she provides, Sophie also helps with physical and occupational therapy at the hospital’s TIRR inpatient rehabilitation center. TIRR is focused on rehabilitating patients who have had strokes, brain or spinal cord injuries, or other neurological diagnoses. Therapists can incorporate the dogs into activities that help patients work on motor skills and range of motion.
“Just having a pet there, patients will do things they wouldn’t do normally,” said Trang Nguyen, an occupational therapist for TIRR Memorial Hermann - The Woodlands. Nguyen was able to encourage her patient, Rodley Langston, to work on the range of motion in his arms by petting Sophie in long strokes and to help him with movement and multitasking by walking with Sophie. The dog can sense a patient’s balance and serve as a living walker, Nistetter said.
Another patient, 95-year-old Maxine Warren, worked on standing endurance and motor skills by standing over Sophie and picking off “fleas” — tiny rolled up pieces of paper. Other patients will play catch, paint the dog’s toenails or lie down on the floor with the dog to work on mobility.
“It gives them a unique purpose to whatever activity they’re doing,” said Lisa Sisk, manager of therapeutic recreation for TIRR.
Nistetter and Sophie got involved at the hospital through Montgomery Pet Partners, a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing a human-animal connection to benefit people in the hospital and in nursing homes and to help children learn to read by attending school and library programs.
Nistetter, who is retired from a career in finance, said he felt drawn to pet therapy and, in particular, to the hospital.
The handlers must go through volunteer training, not only with the pet, but on hospital policies, cleanliness and patient privacy. After each visit, Nistetter is sure to give the patient a bookmark with facts about Sophie, a stuffed dog — known as a “hug-a-pup” — and a squirt of hand sanitizer.
Although Sophie and Nistetter are volunteers, Nistetter feels that the joy that he gets to be a part of when a patient gets to forget his or her problems for a few minutes is payment enough.
“When you see people respond to her — it’s magic,” Nistetter said. “This is why we do what we do.”