Module Test 4

The hospital clown doctor

1My name is Lucy Santana, and I'm a hospital clown doctor. I work for Mercy Children's Hospital in New York City. I treat children with a new kind of medicine: laughter. Kids like to call me Dr. LooLoo. I spend two days a week in the hospital doing very amusing and hilarious things with my husband and colleague Dr. Eddy. We make comical faces, tell jokes, and do magic tricks. Also, when we walk into the wards, we blow bubbles, shake hands with the kids, and make up nonsense songs for those children who are well enough to sing. We take special balloons to make 'balloon animals' and tell funny stories about them.

2I'm naturally a very cheerful person. I've always been a clown. In fact, my father is a clown and I started working with him when I was eight years old. I knew it was just the job for me and I became a clown doctor because I think it's a great way to cheer up sick, anxious children in hospital. I wear a fancy coat, a yellow shirt, trousers with big stripes and a red rubber nose.

3Being a clown in a hospital is very tiring both physically and emotionally. I have to learn not to show any emotions, otherwise it would be useless. Now, I'm working with a very sick little girl from Bosnia who speaks no English, so our only common language is laughter. She's been in and out of hospital for operations so many times and she's always on my mind.

4At lunchtime, Eddy and I eat in the hospital cafeteria and that's really useful because we meet the nurses and doctors. They tell us about particular kids who they think will benefit from a clown doctor's visit. When we leave the hospital late in the evening, we usually feel so worn out that we can hardly walk to the door. At weekends, we often participate in charity events to raise money for Mercy Children's Hospital. We also bring the children's parents together as part of group therapy, and we even give lessons to kids who cannot express themselves well in English. All in all, being a clown doctor makes the worries of everyday life seem small and I feel so privileged and excited to do this job.