Children’s Fun Days continue at St. John Eye Hospital, Jerusalem

This Wednesday, 8 February, 2012, we had another one of our weekly fun days for our little patients scheduled to see the specialists in the Orthoptic Clinic and our skilled paediatric Doctors.  As it is every week, the waiting room was prepared for the children and equipped with paper and drawing and colouring pens to keep them occupied while waiting their turn, and to make coming to St. John Eye Hospital a fun experience.

This week we added an extra item to our schedule of activities. We invited a teacher from a special needs school, who gave a lecture to parents. 

It was useful for some parents to understand how their children felt with their disabilities (whether learning or physical) and to teach them how to cope; to treat the illness or disability as a way of life and to fit the child into family life rather than treat him, or her, as an ill child and alienate them.  The teacher suggested specific motor exercises to encourage hand-eye coordination, positive encouragement and mental games to get children motivated and interested in what they were doing.

The feedback from parents was so positive.  Fathers were colouring with their children and helping them, and the little ones were happy to interact with their parents in a way they were not used to.  It was quite obvious that some parents have never been introduced to such possibilities and they were eager to listen and learn. 

Both parents and children responded positively and engaged in the activities suggested and the idea is to try and make this as regular an event as possible.  This will promote a better quality of life and enhance the children’s abilities. 

Zikrayat (9 months old), below, from Gaza attended our fun day with her grandmother, who was listening attentively to the lecture.  Zikrayat was referred to our hospital from the Makassed Hospital where she is being treated for (Hepatomegaly) enlarged liver.

Another patient referred from Makassed Hospital, Abeer El Ward (6 months old) from Gaza, was born (full term) weighing 2.5 kg.  Abeer at first gained weight, but then started losing her weight and not putting any on.  This is suspected to be due to the after effects of white phosphorus exposure.  She is 6 months old now and looks like a premature baby.  She was referred to St. John Eye Hospital to check the damages this has made to her sight, the baby looked very tired and had very red swollen lids. 

Sama Ghosheh
Nursing Secretary