LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– Going through a medical procedure can be a scary and confusing time for a child. Kentucky Children’s Hospital offers them a special doll to help make sense of their experience.
Thanks to the Kiwanis Club of the Blue Grass, they have received a big donation of these dolls.
They are blank cloth dolls. They are not for sale and they are not your typical toy. They are given to the patients at Kentucky Children’s Hospital as they go through a medical procedure. The children can draw on them and doctors can use them to help explain procedures. They can also be modified to fit each patient’s individual needs.
“This is a way to personalize the medical experience, let them play through some of their fears,” said Jennifer Guilliams with Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “We can do whatever we need to it, we can make it however we need to for that child to be able to understand.”
The hospital uses about 20-30 dolls a week.
The dolls recently donated were made by the hands of three different community organizations, the Kiwanis Club of the Blue Grass, the sewing club at the Lexington Senior Center, and the Key Club at Frederick Douglass High School.
“They give us the patterns and then we cut them out, the key club helps us stuff them, the ladies sewing club at the senior center did the sewing for us,” said Ryan Finnell, the president of the Kiwanis Club of the Blue Grass.
All of the groups that worked on the dolls met for the first time on Thursday to hand the dolls off to the hospital.
The children’s hospital is always in need of more dolls. If you or your organization would like to help out, they will get you set up. Just contact the Child Life Department at Kentucky Children’s Hospital at 859-323-6551.
