"The walls of the pediatric inpatient unit are covered in colorful children's artwork. The floor curves in a circle: older kids do laps pushing their IV poles, while the younger ones trundle around on wagons. There's a playroom in which they hold themed events bingo nights, slime nights, candy-cart nights to inject some fun into a space otherwise sated with illness and death. One year Janosko, who worked as a nurse, dressed up as a blow-up cow to make the kids laugh."
"There's the ubiquitous beeping of machines: low battery alert, air in line, infusion complete. On a good day, it echoes with laughter and the chirping of little voices. Many other days there is crying, and sometimes screaming, as kids are held down to change their dressings or mediport needles. The worst are the silent days, when a patient is approaching death. It's when you brace yourself for what follows: the wailing of parents who have lost their child."
Jenn Janosko spent seven years caring for children with cancer on the ninth floor of Memorial Sloan Kettering's pediatric inpatient unit. The unit is decorated with children's artwork and arranged so older children can do laps with IV poles while younger ones ride wagons. Staff organize themed play events to add fun to a space dominated by illness and death. The ward is defined by the beeping of machines, laughter, crying, and the silent days before death. Janosko returned to the ward as a parent when her four-year-old daughter Izzy was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). DIPG has no cure; tumors arise in the brainstem and surgery is usually impossible given the location.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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