Going to the dentist can be scary for some people. Going to the doctor can be scary for most people. Going to the doctor for surgery is scary for everyone. Especially, for a child.

Surgeons are highly skilled and trained individuals. The yield razor blades, sharp knives, and saws to perform surgeries with great precision. Some might even say it’s an art. But, certainly not art in the creative sense.

Unless you are Dr. Robert Parry, the director of pediatric surgery at Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron, Ohio. He’s been using his artistry skills to help children during the recovery process after surgery.

He’s been covering up the surgical incision wounds with bandages inspired by each patient’s story. He’ll do a pre-op interview leading up to the day of the surgery with the child and the parents. Together, they find something that the child is inspired by.

It could be a symbol, or a character, or maybe something open to interpretation. The latter being a time for the artist to truly shine. He then creates a drawing using markers and adds it to the patient’s bandage.

According to an email interview with CNN,

“Disney characters and sports team logos are the most popular request Parry gets,” adding that, “he once got a pun-inspired request, for which he made a French salad ‘dressing’ bottle.”

In a separate interview with The Washington Post, he said,

“There was a girl once who really wanted a cheeseburger, but couldn’t eat after surgery, so she woke up and found a cheeseburger drawn on her bandage.”

Dr. Parry says it takes him about 5 minutes to create each drawing. He takes the time to do it at the end of the surgery process while his surgery team is cleaning up.

Dr. Parry has been practicing for more than 30 years, with the last nine at the Akron Children’s Hospital. He was initially inspired by Dr. Perry Stafford during his residency at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Stafford would cut out shapes like hearts and sharks.

“My first reaction when I initially saw him cut out these hearts and sharks was, ‘What is he doing? Hey, that’s kind of neat,’” Parry tells The Washington Post. “I especially liked the reactions of the parents and the patients when they saw his artwork. The smiles distracted everyone from the surgery.”

Now he has expanded the artwork to being custom to each case. Sharks and hearts are in the past.

Dr. Parry doesn’t consider himself an artist but does enjoy painting and drawing outside the hospital.

He loves working with children and estimates that he has done over 10,000 drawings for kids during his career. Despite not considering himself an artist, he doesn’t want people to feel as they are just another patient. He wants them to see that personal touch that makes each case feel special.

In one case, a father of one of the kids loved the bandage art so much, that he didn’t want to take it off. He asked for a replica of the drawing, and of course, Dr. Parry obliged and made another drawing.

“In the end, it’s just fun to do, and it makes everyone, including me, feel good. Simple as that.”

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Source: Akron Children’s Hospital, CNN