A virtual reality check for Children’s Hospital patients | Boston Herald – Boston Herald

Young patients will soon take trips to the bottom of the ocean, the tops of mountain peaks and even outer space thanks to a cutting-edge virtual reality program at Boston Childrens Hospital an innovative new push to lessen stress that comes with getting stuck in their rooms for long stretches.

It transports kids, said Laurel Anderson, a child life specialist in a surgical wing at Childrens. It really gives them a true break. It blocks out all the nurses, all the doctors. They cant see their IV pole, they cant see their cast. It really gives them a true break. Its amazing.

Using an HTC Vive virtual reality headset, patients can be transported underwater, surrounded by fish and sea turtles; hang out with a friendly virtual dog on a mountaintop; or teleport through the solar system. Because the Vive is interactive and comes with controllers, kids can touch the tops of jellyfish or throw a stick for the dog.

For Gwen Jones, a 7-year-old from Beverly who came to Childrens after her appendix burst, virtual reality was by far the best thing during her three-week stay. Gwen spent 15 minutes with a black VR headset over her blonde braid, wandering around a virtual canvas, as well as painting and walking through pink hearts and a house made of neon rainbows.

Eventually, she discovered a wintry scene. Its snowing! she said as she threw pink snow into the air. Whoa, a snowman!

Gwens mother, Andrea Jones, said it has been hard at times keeping her daughter engaged and excited after so long in the hospital.

Were trying to take advantage of everything to make the days go fast, Andrea Jones said. Some days its tough.

For Gwen, VR was definitely a hit.

I reeeaaaally liked it, she said.

Childrens has been piloting the VR program since September, testing games and the VR system with about a half-dozen patients. Now, they are preparing to make it available to dozens more and make virtual reality a regular part of caring for patients.

Were always looking for opportunities for kids here to feel like a child, to escape from the medical environment and their medical experiences and to play and do normal childhood things, even in this environment, said Brianna OConnell, another child life specialist overseeing the virtual reality program.

OConnell said Childrens will soon set up the headset which has to be calibrated with cameras and run through a computer for five- or six- hour blocks to accommodate as many patients as possible. For kids who cant leave their rooms because of mobility or immune system problems, the hospital will bring the headset to them. Yet virtual reality will be far more than just fun, Childrens hopes. For kids with chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis who are in the hospital for weeks several times a year, spending even 20 minutes in a virtual world without doctors could be a game-changer. It could also prevent a condition called ICU psychosis, where patients who spend a long time in a hospital room start to lose their sense of reality.

Its allowing the kids an escape and its kind of switching gears in the way that theyre experiencing things, OConnell said.

I had one mom talk to me about the fact that her child had been kind of withdrawn and was really anxious about an upcoming procedure, she said. And she spent half an hour using the virtual reality and her whole mood lifted.

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A virtual reality check for Children's Hospital patients | Boston Herald - Boston Herald