The patient became the jester during clown doctor rounds in the ER this week.
I usually spend time in the Emergency Department toward the end of Dr. Fun E. Bone's rounds, visiting young patients, families with children, ER staff, and anyone else who might 'need' a second opinion, an emergency red nose transplant, or a funny bone adjustment.
The charge desk told me a couple of rooms I should visit, but then said there was one more room with a young patient that they weren't sure about. Her admitting condition would have made a visit from me inappropriate and probably too much to handle.
So, we asked her attending nurse, who conferred with another nurse, and they said, "Good question. Let's ask her if she's up for a visit from our clown doctor."
Together we approached her darkened room, and I could see over one nurse's shoulder that she was a young middle school age girl all alone in the room. We made eye contact, and we both nodded yes at the same time, she with a sweet shy smile, me with a goofy grin.
I made double sure it was OK to come in, and she said yes. I noticed right away she'd been busy. On the chair next to the bed were three hospital glove characters that she'd created and decorated, so we joked about all her visitors and I had her show me how to blow and tie them off. I fumble with chunky fingers.
After a little chit-chat and some funny business -- she was sweet enough to let me finish my first card trick before she confessed she knew how I did it . . . but at least the second one was a surprise to her -- she leaned over and said,
"Do you want to prank someone?"
Since I'm a prankster at heart (and red nose), I was all in! I liked her playful spirit, and it was easy to become complicit with it.
She explained that it would take the two of us to pull it on someone, and it ended up being a variation of a classic clown gag, The Mind Reader.
We'd get a third person in the room with us, that person would pick an object in the room and tell me quietly, but not The Mind Reader (the girl with the magic powers in the bed). She would say yes or no to my question, "Is the secret object (blank)?" And the prank was that I would tip her off that the secretly selected object was coming up next by giving her a clue -- that we'd agreed on ahead of time -- that it was coming, like this:
"Is the secret object this chair?" (The chair was the agreed on key clue.)
"No."
"Is the secret object this milk carton?"
"Yes!"
The nurse we pulled into the room completely went with it, and The Mind Reader performed it wondrously magically. Her beaming smile absolutely lit up the room, and we exchanged high tens.
After thanking her for teaching me that bit, I left her with a paper rose, a superhero POW!, a blown kiss, and big feet barely touching the ground.
Hope she made a speedy recovery.
I usually spend time in the Emergency Department toward the end of Dr. Fun E. Bone's rounds, visiting young patients, families with children, ER staff, and anyone else who might 'need' a second opinion, an emergency red nose transplant, or a funny bone adjustment.
The charge desk told me a couple of rooms I should visit, but then said there was one more room with a young patient that they weren't sure about. Her admitting condition would have made a visit from me inappropriate and probably too much to handle.
So, we asked her attending nurse, who conferred with another nurse, and they said, "Good question. Let's ask her if she's up for a visit from our clown doctor."
Together we approached her darkened room, and I could see over one nurse's shoulder that she was a young middle school age girl all alone in the room. We made eye contact, and we both nodded yes at the same time, she with a sweet shy smile, me with a goofy grin.
I made double sure it was OK to come in, and she said yes. I noticed right away she'd been busy. On the chair next to the bed were three hospital glove characters that she'd created and decorated, so we joked about all her visitors and I had her show me how to blow and tie them off. I fumble with chunky fingers.
After a little chit-chat and some funny business -- she was sweet enough to let me finish my first card trick before she confessed she knew how I did it . . . but at least the second one was a surprise to her -- she leaned over and said,
"Do you want to prank someone?"
Since I'm a prankster at heart (and red nose), I was all in! I liked her playful spirit, and it was easy to become complicit with it.
She explained that it would take the two of us to pull it on someone, and it ended up being a variation of a classic clown gag, The Mind Reader.
We'd get a third person in the room with us, that person would pick an object in the room and tell me quietly, but not The Mind Reader (the girl with the magic powers in the bed). She would say yes or no to my question, "Is the secret object (blank)?" And the prank was that I would tip her off that the secretly selected object was coming up next by giving her a clue -- that we'd agreed on ahead of time -- that it was coming, like this:
"Is the secret object this chair?" (The chair was the agreed on key clue.)
"No."
"Is the secret object this milk carton?"
"Yes!"
The nurse we pulled into the room completely went with it, and The Mind Reader performed it wondrously magically. Her beaming smile absolutely lit up the room, and we exchanged high tens.
After thanking her for teaching me that bit, I left her with a paper rose, a superhero POW!, a blown kiss, and big feet barely touching the ground.
Hope she made a speedy recovery.
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