Young patients at Broward Health Medical Center treated to mobile theater
FORT LAUDERDALE - A bit of magic came to young patients at Broward Health Medical Center Thursday.
The hospital received a new theater on wheels; it's really a tool to help transport some patients away from the pain and health issues they're going through.
"Some of the treatments I get in the hospital like Toradol, it can sting when it goes through your IV," said Ishmael Williams.
Williams,11, has sickle cell disease.
"Makes the blood shape like a crescent moon, you know like the crescent moon in the sky, it's shaped just like that and it can clog your bloodstream," Williams expressed.
It's a grueling disease, one that can cause some patients to have to be frequently hospitalized.
"When I came into the hospital I had chest pains," Ishmael told CBS4.
Dr. Hector Rodriquez-Cortes is currently treating Ishmael.
"Patients with sickle cell have episodes of pain that can be debilitating and affect him completely," Dr. Rodriguez-Cortes said.
That's part of the reason Ishmael has been in the hospital for two weeks, among a few dozen other young patients with different ailments.
This Thursday, he and others were surprised by the Starlight Children's Foundation and Disney Cruise Line with an unveiling celebration for the hospital's first-ever mobile theater.
"I think being able to transform a hospital environment which is typically stressful, and sterile into something positive is amazing," Courtney Dubois, a child life specialist said.
Now, staff can throw a movie night, and use the mobile entertainment center as an aid for interaction; all to make kids feel better through play.
"Things like this that give us a break is just phenomenal." Vicky, Ishmael's mom said.
Ishmael's mom welcomes the little escape. And there's hope on the horizon, sickle cell disease now is curable.
"That bone marrow transplant, yes absolutely," she said.
This summer, Ishmael is scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant from his mom. It could cure him of the disease forever.
