Buck Gardener shows kids at Shriners Hospitals for Children in St. Louis how to use duck calls.
(ST. LOUIS) When the local Cabela’s store in St. Louis invited world champion duck caller Buck Gardener to provide a fun activity for the patients at Shriners Hospitals for Children®, no one realized that this simple invitation would turn into a great way to help patients with their respiratory therapy.
A cacophony of duck calls raised the decibel level in the hospital’s recreational therapy department on March 9 while Gardener and his pro-staffers taught the patients how to properly use their custom-made, hospital-logo duck calls. As the kids were blowing into their calls and trying to be louder than each other, Respiratory Therapist Marcela Spraul entered the room and realized she’d found a perfect tool for helping her patients enjoy their respiratory treatments.
“We walked in and saw all our spine patients – the kids who really need to work on their pulmonary functions – using all their lung power to make their duck calls louder than each other,” Spraul said. “We immediately realized that we could use this toy to help make respiratory therapy more fun for the patients.”
Gardener, who was prepared for a rewarding afternoon of having fun teaching kids about the outdoors and how to use duck calls, was thrilled with the development.
“Using a duck call properly is all about air control and how you breathe,” Gardener said. “I’ve known that using a duck call has improved my lungs over the years, but it didn’t dawn on me until now that the hospital could use these calls in a therapeutic function for the kids.”
Gardener donated 60 extra duck calls to the hospital’s respiratory therapy department for their use.
The patients, on the other hand, had no idea they were doing respiratory therapy. They were just happy to have something fun and different to do… as well as something that could make a little trouble around place.
“Awesomeness,” said Kayla, an 11-year scoliosis patient. “I can use this duck call to annoy my cousins when I get home.”
No doubt, she and her fellow patients will be causing a ruckus in their rooms tonight with the noisemakers.
“We didn’t think about the nurses tonight when we planned this activity,” said Barb Sacco, director of child life and recreational therapy.
The patients will have a good excuse for it, though: it’s just respiratory therapy!
About Shriners Hospitals for Children
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, innovative research, and outstanding teaching programs for medical professionals. Children up to age 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay. For more information, please visit www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.
Contact:
Tammy Robbins, Shriners Hospitals for Children — St. Louis
trobbins@shrinenet.org
314-872-7837