Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/532968
t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 5 19 animals genuinely understand the difference between their time at work and at play—in fact, most of them are so attuned to their roles inside a hospital or care facility that they even know which individuals need their attention the most. "We're really there as much for the parents and siblings of the patients as we are for the kids, and the dogs under- stand that," explained Brenda Chan, whose golden retriever, Andie, has been volunteering with Faithful Paws at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital for over three years. "Sometimes Andie will approach the family before she approaches the patient, because she can tell how stressed the family is. She'll go straight over to the parents and just cuddle up to them." According to Richards, this innate knowledge is triggered by more than just natural animal instinct. "When animals breathe in, they can sense what humans breathe out, through smell—that's how they can tell if you're sick or sad or happy," explained Richards. In fact, canines have more than 150 million olfactory receptors compared to humans' 5 million, and research has indicated that dogs have a keen ability to detect various sick- nesses, including cancer, blood-sugar imbalances, and the onset of seizures. "They're essentially doing a diagnosis with every patient, and that's how they know how to act and who in the room might need them the most." Sometimes, in the midst of watch- ing a parade of animals and their handlers walk through a hospital— stopping for pets and pictures and a wave of smiles as they pass nurses and visitors—it's almost easy to forget how much sadness is experienced within those same walls, and that the reason they are there in the first place is to bring joy and distraction to individuals who are often in the midst of the scari- est time of their lives. No one understands this dichot- omy more than Debbie Benningfield, who volunteers regularly at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Methodist Hospital, Houston Hospice and other facilities through Faithful Paws. Her beloved shelties, Sophie and Emmalea, are famous in the TMC for their matching nurses outfits and innate ability to heal—Emmalea has been credited with waking up multiple unresponsive patients, and Sophie is frequently requested for her sweet demeanor. A little over a year ago, an MRI revealed a left frontal meningioma tumor in Benningfield's brain. "It was January 29, 2014, and I was standing in the aisle of a Sprouts gro- cery store when I got the results," she said. "You never forget a call like that." Through her volunteer work with Faithful Paws, Benningfield was put in touch with her neurosurgeon, Gavin Britz, MBBCh, chairman of the depart- ment of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital. She eventually underwent a craniotomy resection sur- gery to extract the tumor, and although she was only slated to stay in the ICU for one night and a regular room for two, unrelated heart complications, a brain edema, and trouble coming out of anesthesia required her to remain in the hospital for three weeks. "All of the dogs in our crew came to visit me," she said. "It was truly remark- able, being on the patient side of things, and I can now say firsthand what these dogs can do. There's a picture of me sur- rounded by them in the ICU that I love. I'm hooked up to wires and machines and barely conscious, but they provided a moment of calm when I could put everything else away—that's when the healing happened." The children and their families are amazed when the pack appears. They are surprised that there are actually dogs in the hospital! — RICHARD WEIR