“Thinking Like a Child” Helps a Pennsylvania Children’s Hospital Draw Incoming Traffic—and a Fair Number of Tears
by Peter Hochstein
It all starts with mysterious-sounding music, images of equipment and people you can find at any hospital, and a young child’s voice. All together, they make magic.
There’s a picture of a hospital bed with a teddy bear lying on it.
“Secret lair,” confides a little girl’s voice, barely above a whisper.
Next, a close-up of a wheelchair’s wheels, rolling down a corridor.
“Rocketmobile,” she explains.
After that, a view of the tunnel-like inside of an MRI machine. “Laser beams,” she says.
Then a doctor examines an MRI scans on a screen. “Wizard!” says the girl.
An intravenous drip? “Secret formula,” she confides.
A friendly-looking nurse? “Sidekick,” the child informs us.
And then there’s a shock.
The camera cuts to a girl, perhaps seven years old, wearing a hospital gown. Behind her, you can make out her hospital bed. She has evidently lost all her hair to cancer therapy. But she lowers a pink wig to her head, primps in an almost grown-up way, and then, with a smile, informs us in the same voice we’ve been hearing: “Secret agent!”
At that moment, you somehow just know she’s going to be all right. Watch the spot and you may be hard pressed not to tear up.