Fixing boo-boos at the Teddy Bears’ Picnic

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This article was published 28/05/2017 (3083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cherubic children, faces dampened by the rain, lined up Sunday to earnestly explain what ailments had befallen their beloved bears.

“Can I help your bear?” Dr. Stasa Veroukis asked boys and girls over and over as they plunked down teddies of varying colours, sizes, and wear-and-tear on her table. Teddies’ tales of woe varied: a broken leg, a broken arm, a concussion, a rip just big enough for stuffing to fall out, a concussion, an upset tummy.

Each time — her hand as steady and her face as serious as if the stuffed bear were one of her patients in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital — Veroukis would weigh the bear, measure his height, and touch her stethoscope to his bulging belly.

Maybe a little less cookies, she advised the pint-sized owner of one bear with a particularly rotund middle.

He should wear a helmet, she told the owner of a hockey-playing stuffed animal diagnosed with a severe concussion.

Veroukis, a native Winnipegger, has been participating in the Children’s Hospital Foundation’s annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic on and off since she started medical school 17 years ago. As a child, she’d come to Assiniboine Park and hand her bear over to a volunteer just like her.

“I can’t remember,” she laughed when quizzed on what injury or illness her childhood bear was facing. “Probably a broken leg or something.”

Veroukis said some of the injured stuffed animals she saw Sunday had quite the assortment of maladies.

“Some broken arms, some broken legs, a few head injuries,” she said, “a concussion, a head injuries… some headaches and tummy aches. I’ve seen some colds and earaches and some pneumonia, oh yeah some pretty serious illnesses.”

Many children carted their beloved stuffed animals to Veroukis’ tent for a general examination. Some had already been to the eye tent, where bears were tested for any eyesight problems and fitted for colourful glasses made of pipe cleaners.

One girl with pigtails brought her little white bear named Snow, already wearing some eye-catching new purple and pink glasses, to see Veroukis after getting Snow fitted for glasses. She watched with great concentration as the doctor helped Snow get healthy and declared her of average bear weight: between seven and eight pounds.

Although, Veroukis said after in confidence, “there’s been a couple off the scale.”

Parents, who protected bears from the drizzle with garbage bags and umbrellas, braved the rainy weather for a chance to have their bear’s more urgent aches and pains treated by the 17 Winnipeg Field Ambulance.

Although the ambulance crew is more used to adult patients, Sgt. Jeff Dagiquan said they managed well with their younger and furrier clientele.

“What happened?” The volunteers asked solemnly. “Did they fall off the bed?”

Kids watched carefully as their cat bears, dolls with ponytails, and even dog bears had paws wrapped in casts, arms carefully bandaged, and even tiny rips sutured by dedicated personnel. Afterwards, gleeful owners sat still for face paint and drew pictures to hang on the tent’s wall.

Dagiquan, who has been involved with the event for the last five or so years, said his unit has been co-operating with the hospital foundation to support the event since its start three decades ago.

“It’s great to see (the kids) when they come in,” he said. “They’re in awe and they have smiles on their faces.”