Patient’s best friend

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin William Hall,
15, spends some time with Saki, a golden
retriever. Saki is a part of People Animal Connection, a group that
brings dogs to visit patients in hospitals.

By Rachel Makabi
Daily Bruin Reporter

As Saki, a seven-year-old golden retriever, strutted down the
orthopedic hall in the UCLA Medical Plaza in her light blue
volunteer uniform, she was greeted with smiles, pats and friendly
hellos.

Most people are not used to seeing dogs in hospitals. That
surprise is one reason why the People Animal Connection, a program
in which community volunteers and their dogs visit patients in the
UCLA hospital, has been so successful.

“They are distracting and they remind you of the beauty
and joy of life,” said PAC program director Kathie Cole, who
goes by the nickname “KC.”

“It is very important when you are in a hospital, with
nothing but negative feelings, to have hope and joy,” she
said.

Cole first had the idea for PAC after she and a team of nurses
observed patients and decided to create a program to counterbalance
the hospital’s negative environment.

The program began by placing goldfish in the rooms of patients
who required prolonged hospitalization, but soon after, Cole and
her dog, Gracie, started visiting patients as well.

Since the inception of the program in 1994, 17,500 visits have
taken place in the Medical Plaza.

On this particular afternoon, Saki and her owner, Karen Feldman,
were visiting seven patients.

Her first visit of the afternoon was with Paul Kimatian, who
just had surgery on his ankle after getting hit by a van at the Los
Angeles International Airport. As Saki climbed onto his bed,
Kimatian remarked that after being in the hospital, seeing Saki was
a comfort and unexpected delight.

PAC team coordinator Stephen Chan said one of the first visits
he made with Frasier, his golden retriever, was to a one-year-old
girl who had lost her vision.

“I really saw her focusing on Frasier. She took out
everything else and she just focused on him.” Chan said.
“It was enlightening for me to see how much more is involved
in bringing the dogs to see the patients.”

There are currently more than 600 hospitals across the nation
that have a PAC program.

At the UCLA Medical Plaza, the dogs visit 29 of the 39 units,
including all patients except those with evidence of infection,
fever, dog dander allergies, those who have had their spleens
removed, immunosuppression or open wounds.

Because Saki and her canine friends are being brought to a
hospital, they were extensively screened before beginning
visits.

Directly after submitting an application, they had to pass a
behavioral evaluation, where they were tested for their
comprehension of basic commands and level of comfort with strangers
and crowded areas.

Once they passed this section, their owners had to attend
classroom instruction and joined their dogs in on-site
orientations.

“The dogs are so well screened and a lot of the dogs
don’t get in,” said Linda Rich, a volunteer. “You
end up with the really good dogs that are well trained.”

For instance, Saki never barks at the patients.

Rich, who works in the Alzheimer’s and dementia units at
the Neuropsychiatric Institute with her golden retriever, said the
program is therapeutic for patients. When they see the dogs, it
sparks old memories, a critical component of Alzheimer’s
treatment.

In addition, Rich said that the dogs serve to break down
barriers that some patients may have with other people.

After one of her visits in which the patient spoke and
interacted with her golden retriever, nurses told Rich that it was
the first time the patient had said a word to anyone, including
doctors and nurses, since he checked into the hospital a month
earlier.

Sometimes the treatment is more intense, where some dogs
actively engage in physical therapy with the patients.

“Some of these owners can work miracles. They teach the
dogs hand signals and they do physical therapy,” Cole
said.

“They make people happier, calmer, more loved and less sad
““ science and medicine can’t do that.” she
continued.

Chan recalls that on one of his more recent visits to an
unconscious elderly man, the patient’s eye started twitching
and showing movement as Frasier moved to place himself beside
him.

“The patient was definitely benefiting from that visit and
so were his two sons beside him. That feeling that they take away
with them after the visit allows it to continue, even after the dog
has already left,” Chan said.

Patients said the visits with the dogs momentarily transport
them out of the hospital setting, allowing them to forget their
current levels of stress and physical pain.

“It’s nice because they are so comforting,”
said William Hall, a 15-year-old patient as Karen Feldman and her
dog Saki visited him. “It takes your mind off of the
pain.”

Rich notes the effect her dog has on people as she walks into
waiting rooms where families await the prognosis of patients.

“The waiting room is one of the most stressful places in
the entire hospital but when we visit the families, it takes them
out of that horrible place for a few hours,” Rich said.
“It is absolutely amazing to watch a dog relieve stress
levels.”

Many volunteers say they take as much away from each of their
bi-monthly visits as the patients do.

“A hospital is a very stressful place and it is very
satisfying to see that Saki is able to help people. It’s
obvious that people like it,” Feldman said. “The
doctors and nurses like it just as much as the patients do.
Everyone wins.”