Upstate hospital celebrates partnership with therapy dog program – WYFF4 Greenville

Some loveable, furry faces got a round of applause at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital
Some loveable, furry faces got a round of applause at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital
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Some loveable, furry faces got a round of applause at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital
Some loveable, furry faces got a round of applause at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital.
On Wednesday, the hospital celebrated 15 years of partnering with Upstate Therapy Dogs. The organization brings trained dogs to visit hospitals around the Upstate to help children and adults while they’re at the hospital.
“It kind of makes you forget about what you’re here for,” Leah Smith said.
“Whenever you see the dog and you’re having a bad day, they always put a smile on your face, no matter how bad that day’s going, because the dog’s always wagging their tail, being happy,” Kaitlyn Lengel, a patient at Prisma Health, said.
Dozens of dogs with Upstate Therapy Dogs visit the children’s hospital on a regular basis. They help children receiving inpatient and outpatient care.
“My husband got cancer and I saw how the dogs helped him through the process,” Kaye Martell, the Coordinator for Upstate Therapy Dogs, said.
The dogs serve as a refuge and form of security blanket for a lot of the children at the hospital. Martell says their faces light up when they see one of the dogs come in the room.
“The children who are having procedures,” Martell said. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘I’ll go see the doctor if I can go see the dogs’.”
“There have been times that we have been in surgery, come out of surgery, she doesn’t want to get up,” April Lengel, whose daughter is a patient at Prisma Health, said. “She doesn’t want to walk. But you bring the dogs in and tell her the dog needs to go on a walk. She’ll get up and do it for the dog when everybody else in the room, she won’t do anything else for.”
Lengel says the dogs can help take the children’s minds out of the often scary or daunting realities inside the hospital walls. She says a lot of her daughter’s progress has been, in part because of the therapy dogs.
“The smiles don’t come as often right now,” April Lengel said. “We’re kind of at a difficult spot in her medical journey, so to see her kind of completely destress, take her mind of everything and what’s upcoming and now just laugh and have a good time for a little bit, it lets her be a kid for a little bit which is amazing.”
For Kaitlyn, being at the hospital two or three times a week, she says these dogs and the health care workers have become more like family to her.
“And then it brings a smile to your face and you’re like, okay I can keep going,” Kaitlyn Lengel said.
April Lengel says the dogs often bring a smile to Kaitlyn’s face that most others can’t bring back.
Martell says Upstate Therapy Dogs now has more than 50 dogs, all trained and screened to help children, adults and families. She says each dog belongs to one of the members of the program.
She says the dogs visit hospitals all around the Upstate.
If you’re interested in becoming a part of the program and training your dog, you can find more information here.
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