John’s Experience

John was not yet walking when he first came to C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital. John needed to have ophthalmologists examine his eyes while he was anesthetized. It was pretty stressful because it was feared that he may have inherited a potentially serious eye disease. This is John’s story, as told by his dad, Thomas Wortman of the Kiwanis Club of Kalamazoo.

The staff at Mott were all great, but there was a significant delay in starting the procedure. John was bored and restless until… a Mott child life worker came to the rescue! This Mott employee took John away from his waiting area, and saw that he had age-appropriate toys and activities. She also showed us a video about what we could expect during our stay that day.

Without this child life specialist, our time at Mott would have been much less bearable, more arduous, and more trying. Today, John (who just turned five years old) says that having helpers like this is important “so that kids aren’t scared, and so they know what the doctor will do.”

John does have that eye disease, as it turns out, but it does not seem to be as severe as we had feared. We still have to wait, but for now, it seems that his glasses will work to properly correct his vision.