BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
UF Health Pediatric Orthopaedics, which is part of an alliance with Shriners Children’s, has put a focus on making the environment at as warm and friendly as possible, but it recently got a boost from local Shriners, who donated approximately 100 toys for the benefit of its patients.
Starke-Keystone Shrine Club Noble David Kniseley, who’s president of the club, and Noble Fred Magyari, who’s the club’s past president, delivered the toys to the clinic on Feb. 17. Jennifer Ford, the wife of Past Potentate Bruce Ford was instrumental in collecting many of the toys as well as arranging for the Starke-Keystone Shrine members (and Kniseley’s wife, Brenda) to visit and receive a tour of the pediatric center, which is located on the fourth floor of the UF Health Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute in Gainesville.
The donation of toys is just one example of how the Starke-Keystone Shrine Club, which is part of Morocco Shriners, supports Shriners Children’s. The club conducts fundraising efforts to help cover the transportation and lodging contests for families receiving care at a Shriners Children’s facility.
During the UF Health Pediatric Orthopaedics tour, conducted by Brie Van Horn, child life specialist, the Kniseleys and Magyari witnessed how much care went into making children feel as comfortable as possible. Colorful artwork of animals is placed throughout the clinic. Every room also has a piece of interactive art.
“While they’re waiting, they’ve got things to keep them busy,” Van Horn said.
The goal, of course, is to occupy children’s time and, hopefully, reduce their level of anxiety. Van Horn said volunteers visit the facility on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays to hang out with the children in the waiting room and give them items that will keep them busy.
“They’re all things they can grab and go,” Van Horn said of the items, “so if it is a day where they’re moving through the different parts of the clinic quickly, they can take it with them. It helps make it less scary to be here. They’re not sitting and getting nervous.”
Funding from Shriners Children’s provided the clinic with an EOS Imaging System, a low-radiation system that can provide an image of a patient from head to toe.
“We use it a lot for our spinal patients,” Van Horn said, adding, “This is a big, exciting thing for our providers to have.”
Van Horn demonstrated how patients enter the EOS, placing their feet on the marks and placing their hands on the wall.
“We tell them it sounds kind of like a spaceship,” Van Horn said. “It’s like a laser beam. It scans from top to bottom.”
Kniseley remarked how it looked like the EOS had a shower head, with Magyari saying, “That’s what I thought it was to start with.”
“That’s how we explain it to them,” Van Horn said. “It looks like a shower. They stand in it as if they were in the shower.”
The EOS also has a fish-themed wrap — again to make it seem less scary for children.
The Starke Shriners also got a look at the clinic’s physical-therapy and cast rooms. Upon first entering the cast room, the visitors were greeted by the sight of a cast saw upon which an Incredible Hulk costume was draped. Another cast saw was adorned with a Wonder Woman outfit.
“The cast saws — they cannot hurt you. They only know how to cut the hard part of the cast,” Van Horn said. “However, since it’s called a cast saw, and it looks like a saw, it is probably the scariest thing we have and that we do here. We dress them up. The Hulk is going to take your cast off, not the scary machine.”
A projector in the room allows patients to view any show or movie available on Disney+.
“We also have really nice noise-canceling headphones that can hook up to the projector so we can help block out the noise,” Van Horn said.
The room also includes a wooden, happy looking crab, which has different colored casts on each of its legs.
“This is how we show all the color options that we have, so they can choose what color cast they want,” Van Horn said.
At the conclusion of their tour, the Starke Shriners were able to meet Nigel Price, a Shriners-endowed professor and the pediatric orthopaedics division chief. Price said because of how the clinic’s equipped, “there’s really nothing much that we need to send out for.”
The clinic is able to treat the following: clubfoot and other foot disorders; congenital, developmental and neuromuscular conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system; hip dysplasia; limb deformities and deficiencies; orthopaedic trauma; scoliosis and complex spinal deformities; and sports injuries.
Procedures performed include arthroscopy; fracture repair and reconstruction; growth modulation and reconstruction for deformities of the lower extremities; hip-preservation surgeries; limb-lengthening surgeries; Mehta casting; Ponseti casting for clubfoot; spinal fusion and growing rod surgery; spinal tethering for scoliosis; and surgery for spine, hips and feet related to cerebral palsy.
“We appreciate what you all do. It is amazing,” Kniseley told clinic personnel, adding, “This is a great facility.”
The clinic in Gainesville is part of Shriners Children’s Florida Extended Care, a network of hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the state.
Shriners Children’s is composed of approximately 20 hospitals throughout North America as well as a variety of clinics.
Since the opening of the first Shriners hospital in 1922 in Shreveport, Louisiana, 15-plus million children have been treated.
Shriners Children’s is devoted to providing high-quality specialty medical care to children and families, regardless of ability to pay or insurance status. Care is provided for a range of orthopaedic, craniofacial, spine, spinal cord and sports medicine conditions and injuries as well as burns and burn-related conditions, and colorectal and gastrointestinal conditions.
For more information on UF Health Pediatric Orthopaedics and Shriners Children’s, visit ufhealth.org/pediatric-orthopaedics and shrinerschildrens.org.
