Peaceable kingdom

Animal friends bring healing to hospital patients

By Helyn Trickey
CNN.com Interactivity Editor

(CNN) -- Brad Jackson was mowing his lawn one Saturday afternoon at his Michigan home when a phone call stopped him in his tracks. A man dying of renal failure at Marquette General Hospital had a final request, and it had to do with Jackson's large chocolate Labrador retriever, Boomer.

The dying patient had asked that the animal visit with him at his bedside, so Jackson brought the dog to the hospital and Boomer lay down beside the patient as he drew his last breaths.

"He seemed more at peace," said Jackson of the patient. "They (animals) have capabilities that sometimes go farther than you expect."

The request may have been a little out of the ordinary, but Jackson -- a physical therapist and the director of animal-assisted therapy at Marquette General -- is used to getting calls from area hospitals for Boomer and other animals in the community-based program he founded called the Upper Michigan Dog Therapy Project.

"About five or six years ago I noticed he (Boomer) got a lot of attention and out of that grew a professional interest."

"Their faces light up and there is so much laughter and conversation."
-- Renee Lamm Esordi, photographer, author

Jackson wondered how Boomer could work with patients and soon he was escorting the canine through hospital doors. Hospital officials were responsive to his interest and even encouraged Jackson to develop a network of certified dog handlers in the area. Today, the program has volunteers who visit half a dozen facilities regularly.

A trend that began in the 1960's, animal-assisted therapy and visitation is now a widely accepted practice. Photographer and author Renee Lamm Esordi captured the beauty of this unique animal-human interaction in her new book "You Have a Visitor: Observations on Pet Visitation and Therapy."

Renee Lamm Esordi, photographer and author, with her dogs

With camera in tow, Esordi tagged along on animal visits to nursing homes, children's hospitals and psychiatric units.

"When you walk in with a group of people with their pets," Esordi explained, "sometimes there are people out of their rooms and sitting in wheelchairs ... and their faces light up and there is so much laughter and conversation."

Esordi admits hiding behind her camera lens on occasion -- especially when the scenes became emotionally difficult. Soon, however, she noticed that the animals made it easier to talk with patients.

"The pets really make you feel more comfortable and it was so much easier to just begin conversations. I started learning about people's careers and stuff," she said.

Esordi recalls one nursing home visit in New Hampshire where an older gentleman met Brownie -- a bouncy chocolate Lab. The man had suffered a stroke and was limited in his ability to talk. On this occasion, however, he bonded with Brownie and even played her songs on the piano, with the pooch intently watching his withered hands glide over the black and white keys.

"I could see tears in his eyes," remembered Esordi.

Animals tend to elicit reactions from patients that the best doctors, therapists and even technology cannot, said physical therapist Nancy Dragotta.

"They (patients) forget about themselves when they work with the dogs," she said. "They perform and interact with the dogs and do remarkable things that they don't do in normal therapy. Because they are working with another living thing they are forgetting every move they make."

Animal-assisted therapy can help lower high blood pressure, high blood sugar and improve physical movement in patients

Dragotta, who heads up Therapaws, the animal-assistance therapy program at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, believes much of the benefit from working with animals is that interaction pushes the patients to think outside of themselves.

From a medical standpoint, there are two types of animal/human interaction -- animal visitation and animal-assisted therapy. Animal visitation can include almost any pet -- furry or feathered -- and is usually an informal visit. While there are generally no firm medical goals, patients may experience benefits like lowered blood pressure, lowered blood sugar and improved physical movement.

Animal-assisted therapy, by contrast, pairs a well-trained, certified animal -- usually a dog -- with an experienced handler and a medical team that includes a physical therapist. Specific medical goals are set for each session and records are kept to chart any progress.

"There is no typical patient we see," said Dragotta. "We do see a lot of stroke patients, but we see just about every diagnosis there is -- from infants to 102 years of age. We have worked with autistic patients and head injuries ... from coma patients to higher cognitive functioning people."

When working with a stroke victim with left-side partial paralysis, for instance, Dragotta outlines patient goals, such as sitting up, standing and memory recall. Perhaps the handler might bring the dog to the patient on the left side so he/she is motivated to reach out with the left hand to pet the animal. Then the handler might tell the patient facts about the animal -- its name, age or favorite food. Several minutes later the patient could be asked to recall the information -- an exercise that helps the medical team assess mental abilities.

"Maybe we want the patient to practice standing," says Dragotta, "so we put a dog on a raising table and we position the dog so the patient gets the most work out with the side that is most affected."

Brushing a dog's fur can help build strength and range of motion, while asking a dog to retrieve a ball or sit can help a patient reach speech goals.

But the idea of furry animals padding their way down sterile hospital hallways has not always been a welcome concept.

"There is certainly a knee-jerk reaction when you have a sterile facility and you bring in the dogs," says Jackson who headed off any concern from his hospital by learning the facts about animal to human disease control. Working with healthy animals is paramount, and he advocates certification for all therapy animals through an accredited institution like The Delta Society or Therapy Dogs International, Inc.

Animal-assisted therapy is successful, added Jackson, because of the unconditional love of the animal.

"They are not judgmental and people know that. There is a connection between the patient and the animal that cannot be touched by the very best therapist," he said.

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Upper Michigan Dog Therapy Project
Marquette General Hospital
Therapy Dogs International
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