NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin The UCLA Mattel Children’s
Hospital and Child Life Development Center have created the
"Starlight Room" for the young patients.
By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Staff
Evish Kamrava recalls working with a 10-year-old boy who was
recovering from a liver transplant after spending most of his life
in the hospital.
“He was having a hard time connecting with any of the
volunteers, and they thought he was going into depression. But when
we started to talk about basketball … he would start laughing and
his parents were so thankful,” Kamrava said.
Kamrava, a fourth-year biochemistry student, has volunteered at
the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital four hours a week for
three years as a “child companion” for the Child Life
Program, which attempts to make pediatric patients’ stay more
enjoyable.
“It was really awesome; that experience still motivates
me. Even when I’m tired, I think about that little boy and it
makes it all worth it,” he said.
Some patients, whose homes range from Bakersfield to Lebanon,
have waited weeks, months or even their entire lives for hearts,
livers and small intestines while others recover form traumatic
surgery.
Patients currently at the hospital would not comment on their
stay.
There are approximately 100 people ““ mostly UCLA students
““ volunteering at the pediatric hospital and Child Life
Development Center on a weekly basis, according to Denise
Matsuyama, a 10-year veteran child care specialist.
The main goal of the Child Life Program is to create a normal
childhood environment for patients suffering from “high
acuity” illnesses.
Patients who have suffered severe trauma and require constant
care such as monitoring vital signs and medication are classified
as “high acuity.”
“We make the medical environment more child-friendly for
patients who are preparing for surgery or recovering,”
Matsuyama said.
The Starlight Room at the Child Life Center is the most popular
source of entertainment for patients.
Patients look at the Starlight and play rooms as a haven for a
couple hours a day, said second-level Clinical Nurse Gayane
Minanian.
“It’s an incentive, a place for them to get away
from all the poking and prodding,” she said.
The room has been transformed into the cockpit of a spaceship
and is equipped with the most modern navigational devices in the
galaxy (I-Macs) and armed with the most accurate weaponry systems
(Playstation).
“They would rather not be in the hospital, but it’s
their favorite thing to do while they are here,” Matsuyama
said.
Volunteers spend hours playing video games, making arts and
crafts, or simply talking with recovering children of all ages and
of varying acuity.
Matsuyama has worked with patients from Japan and the Middle
East who came specifically to the UCLA hospital because of the
doctors’ expertise.
After receiving a heart transplant at the hospital, a
12-year-old Japanese boy started his lengthy recovery process at
the Child Life Center, thousands of miles from home. Matsuyama and
the boy forged a unique friendship, and since he recuperated and
returned home, the two have exchanged e-mails.
“It was just he and his mom since they left home in Japan,
and they participated in the Halloween trick-or-treating which was
a new experience for him,” Matsuyama said.
“It’s nice when they get to experience things kids
typically get to experience,” she said.
While some Westwood residents have complained recently of
helicopter noise from pilots delivering organs to transplant
patients, Minanian said residents need to be more tolerant.
“If they were to know what actually takes place in a
facility such as this, they would understand.”
The UCLA Medical Center was recently ranked “Best in the
West” for the second year in a row, according to U.S. News
and World Report.
“Our physicians have more access to research and new
developments in technology than most other hospitals. That allows
us to take care of such highly acute patients,” Minanian
said.
The hospital is located just down the hall from the Child Life
Center in the Center for Health Sciences, and the two entities are
in constant contact.
Minanian said emotions come into play with children on their way
to recovery and who are deathly ill.
“The kids break your heart when they’re sick, or
when you know they’re not going to make it,” Minanian
said.
An infant currently in the intensive care unit is in desperate
need of a liver transplant.
“He’s continuously vomiting, and we are constantly
infusing platelets and doing transfusions that are necessary until
a liver comes,” Minanian said.
The children are the source for her worst and her best days,
Minanian said.
“Anytime I think I’m fed up with my job, or when I
say I’m stressed, the kids just look up at you and they make
you laugh or cry even in the worst situation. They’re very
special,” she said.
Those interested in the Child Life Development Program should
call the volunteer office at (310) 825-6002.