Thirty years of Doctor Dreams, much more than smiles. “We enter the pediatric wards, and the hearts of children, on tiptoe”

Theodora Foundation , which takes care of the emotions of children and adolescents hospitalized in highly complex pediatric wards, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Today it is present in 44 pediatric wards in 10 Italian cities with 31 Dream Doctors and each year it brings smiles to over 35,000 children. Every week the Dream Doctors, professional artists hired and specifically trained by the Foundation, bring unique and unrepeatable moments of encounter into the hospital rooms, offering young patients moments of play, listening and escape. The Dream Doctors focus on the "healthy part" of children, helping them to be more serene and stronger during their hospital stay, thus supporting the doctors and nurses involved in the care of their "sick part", helping to reduce anxiety and improve the quality of life of young patients . They do not limit themselves to simply offering distraction but establish relationships of trust with children and families, becoming a point of reference during treatments and hospitalizations. The Foundation, present in 7 countries (Switzerland, England and Spain, Belarus, Turkey and Hong Kong) operates in Italy in the hospitals of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Monza, Pavia, La Spezia and Padua.

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Operating room waiting room at the Giannina Gaslini hospital in Genoa. A man, sitting, in his forties. A five or six year old girl, next to her, clutches a stuffed mouse. With them is a female doctor, wearing an embroidered coat. The door to the operating room opens and a doctor dressed in green enters: “Ah, Mr. Orazio, an old acquaintance of ours! So what have we done this time?”. The little girl stands up, clutching the mouse, shows her tail: “He’s a bit delicate in the tail, like all mice. You know! But this time he also has a bit of a tummy ache. Like me.”

The doctor looks at the little girl and the mouse very carefully: “Let’s see what we can do, we specialize in little girls and little mice here”. They both turn towards the operating room. The little girl is still holding the mouse in her hands. They walk away together, the door is about to close behind them but the little girl doesn’t forget: “Bye Dad, bye Doctor Peppa! See you later”. Finally Dad’s eyes get teary. He smiles looking at Peppa. They both smile, barely touching each other. “See you later”.

Orazio Pistacchio is Doctor Peppa's puppet . He is a big white mouse into which he puts his hand like a puppet, Orazio moves on the beds and young patients. He almost never speaks - because mice almost never do - but he is able to establish an immediate connection with people of all ages. “Orazio and I work together, he stays in my coat pocket and comes out when the situation gets difficult. Our job is not just to make people smile. We don’t tell jokes, we don’t have red noses or long shoes. We enter rooms and, when we can, people’s hearts. On tiptoe. People who are sick don’t always want to spend time with strangers. But even the slightest excuse can be enough for them to come to us. I remember one time when the situation was so serious that only doctors could enter the room. In that case, it was a soap bubble that allowed us to enter. A bubble blown from behind the door acted as a picklock. I played with the child and then with the grandmother. Before leaving, we hugged. Later, we saw each other again.”

Brandy is Doctor Bonsai's sloth : "Young Brandy is not born this way, you see him slow because he is crazy about anesthesia." "Does he like cognac?" I ask. "Absolutely! It is forbidden in the hospital! Sometimes he drinks a drop of sherry, but only in the evening." "Together with Doctor Peppa we accompany the surgical team. We welcome parents and children and from their room we accompany them until they fall asleep. When they wake up we greet them together with their parents. They can feel very lonely. Sometimes a look is enough."

During the morning , doctors Peppa and Bonsai, together with their pets, sang, blew soap bubbles, fell in love with a door jamb, played and listened, stumbled several times, even talked about their boyfriends with a teenager and took selfies with a grandfather. The next room is Filippo's. Filippo is a very active child and usually jumps all over the ward. He is very outgoing and a good friend of Orazio: he always invites him to eat spinach with him. The Doctors chatter in the corridor and open the door of the room smiling. Filippo is lying on the bed, attached to a machine. His mother sits next to him. The doctors come in. They sit next to their mother and hug each other.

Thank you, Doctors, because when I needed to cry, you sat next to me. And you hugged me.