Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Five Reasons to Love Dell ...

... Children's Medical Center. (Not the computer company, although they're named for the same guy, and the company employs my brother-in-law, so I honor their existence.)

Today marked exactly one month since Caroline's pool accident, and we observed the occasion by bringing a small care package to the pediatric ICU where she received such top-shelf care. None of our nurses were available, but we did get to see her attending physician, who fawned over her most maternally. Love her.

The evening visit reminded me that I never transferred the bulleted love letter I'd composed from my head to my blog. So here goes.


Five Reasons We Love Dell Children's Medical Center:

1. Every single person who works there is, as far as I can tell, a High Quality Person. Including the folks they employ specifically to tend your soul. Including the folks you call up on the phone to politely inform them that your kid would like some chocolate ice cream, STAT.

2. The gorgeous, airy architecture, punctuated by colored windows and tranquil, fountain-spangled courtyards. Once you're not on death's doorstep anymore, you feel like you're at a resort ... almost.

3. The lobby features an amazing Rube-Goldberg machine. Okay, perhaps not as dazzling as the OK GO one, but still one that my children claim to be able to watch for "hours and hours" or even "all day long."


4. You can donate gently used children's books to the resource center there, and the books will find a good home at patients' bedsides. We've now been on the giving and receiving end of the Half-pint Library. It's a grrrrreat way to pass along some cast-aside favorites.

5. Volunteers come to do art projects or play Wii Sports with patients in the playroom, and special volunteers even bring their dogs to visit patients who need a little "pet therapy." Maybe not ideal for a canine-a-phobe, but for my dog-loving daughter, this was just the ticket.

May you never have the occasion to fact-check my claims (unless you're dropping off books) ... but should you be so unfortunate, Dell is the place to be!

3 comments:

~cjoy said...

Those are lovely bullet notes....and I'll have to check and see if our local children's hospital accepts donated books - that's be a great idea!

By the way, I love your family photo at the top of your blog - it's fabulous!!

But really, the most interesting thing at the moment is that when I reach the end of this post, my two younger children are entralled with the photo of #29....and I had to return there for them once I was ready to move on. (Oh, and I refrained form explaining his fate OR the fact that I'd like to do the same thing sometime soon....)

~cjoy said...

(pardon my typos above....I feel in need of a nap at 8:30am...)

JoAnn said...

Hannah, I really like the new photo at the top of the page. good work! so you guys were the ones who got the organ meats! I am surprised.... but I really shouldn't be. I can tell you how we used to do liver, and I loved it as a kid. Still do, so if you leave it in my freezer too long, it just might disappear. Don't know about heart, but the liver is the only organ meat I have ever been able to eat. Had kidney pie once in England and couldn't manage it. My mother used to fix "sweetbreads" (pancreas) but I wouldn't eat them. So, good luck with that, and if you figure out what I might do with the "trimmings" let me know.
your loving MIL.