CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — We all know how much better we feel with a furry friend around us, such as a dog or cat. It has proven to be therapeutic for a lot of people with health conditions.
Thursday, after a three-year hiatus, a local hospital welcomed back its troop of Welcome Waggers.
Heart patient Sarah Holman’s heart melted when Coast, a 7-year-old Golden Retriever, visited her room at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.
“She’s pretty, I wish I could take her,” Homan said with a very big smile.
After spending more than a month in ICU back in May, Holman welcomed the four-legged visitor with open arms.
“It’s just like laying there in that bed and how much TV can you watch, you know,” she said.
Other patients get the same fuzzy feeling. Simply stroking Coast’s coat makes them feel at home.
“I got three chihuahuas, squirrel, cockatiel and a duck,” another patient told WAVY.
Chesapeake Regional has 10 pet therapy teams certified by Therapy Dogs International.
Patients can make a request to see one, as they are there most every weekday.
The meetings are medicinal, according to care manager Dianna Francisco.
“If patients are here for a long period of time, they start getting depressed, withdrawn,” Francisco said. “They stop participating with therapy.”
It’s not just the patients who are benefiting from the program.
“Staff are under a lot of stress dealing with a lot of patients,” Francisco said, “and the dogs are just as much therapy for them, me included, as they are for our patients.”
Even Coast feels better.
“She likes to lean on people and she wants them to touch her and cuddle her and hold her and squeeze her and hug her,” said Coast’s owner, Olga O’Donnell.
Its a rough job, but Coast is happy to be back at it.
