Nic, a three-year-old Goldendoodle, and his handler and owner Lori Holtfreter are the stars of Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown located in Nashville, Tennessee. Every time they come in for their scheduled weekly visit to the hospital, the nurses will swarm around Nic exploding with cheers and claps. And he always loves to give back the energy and rush from one nurse to another asking for pets, scratches, and of course, treats.
And after all the greetings are done, a nurse will ask him if he wants to go around and do charting with him. He will then flop up his two front paws excitedly on the desk and the nurses will then again squeal and comment on how cute he is.
Aside from the nurses, doctors and other hospital technicians also love Nic as well. Jan Brown, the hospital’s volunteer services coordinator, expressed how they have been focusing on pet therapy team visits as they knew how important these were in boosting morale and relieving stress. Medical tech Diamond Hodges definitely agrees with this and often tells Nic how he is needed on the surgery floor every day.
At least once a week, Nic or other therapy dogs would go and visit the hospital. And during their work hours, they try to visit as many patients as they could to comfort them and cheer them up. Patients definitely wait excitedly for their visits because even for just a few hours, they would feel happiness and relief.
One of those is an 83-year-old heart patient from Smyrna named Gene Meyers. Nic loves to leap right into his hospital bed and Gene definitely loves it as well. He had dogs all his life so having Nic by his bedside and patting the dog’s furry backside makes him feel great.
Source: King 5
