Crowded Clinics Cure Every Ailment

They came to the clinics with broken bones and rare diseases, including being allergic to street lights. All of them amazingly returned home the same day, fully recovered.

Last Sunday, three teddy bear clinics were operated for a day in Reykjavík and vicinity, offering to treat any imaginable illness suffered by stuffed animals.

The project is offered annually as part of the training of first year medical students at the University of Iceland. Its purpose is to make children comfortable with the idea of visiting their clinic and prevent them from developing a fear of doctors and other healthcare workers. Besides, it gives medical students a chance to practice receiving patients, Brynhildur K. Ásgeirsdóttir, medical student, tells mbl.is .

Numerous children used the chance to visit the clinics in the company of their parents – holding their sick teddy bear or stuffed animal.

“We spent quite some time on this,” Brynhildur states. “We examined the teddy bears thoroughly, took X-rays and looked at this and that. The teddy bears’ illnesses varied from stomach ache to being allergic to street lights.” No matter how rare, every disease was successfully cured by the medical students.

Three-year-old Lilja Karen Sigurðardóttir brought her unicorn Einar Áskell to her local clinic. Einar had fallen on his way out of bed and hurt his ankle. An X-ray revealed a fracture. A Band-Aid was applied, four hugs a day prescribed, in addition to eating healthy meals and taking it easy.