Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman visit Phoenix Children's Hospital
Diamond Myers has been in and out of Phoenix Children's Hospital for the past few months.
Even going to the movies is a challenge for the 17-year-old, who has been battling advanced Crohn's disease and must keep germs at bay.
On Tuesday, however, the movies came to her.
Patients' faces lit up with joy and happiness with the visit of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
A trio of cosplayers from the Justice League of Arizona surprised the youth at a hospital pizza party to bring the upcoming movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” to life.
Dressed as a character herself, Myers ate cheese pizza and talked about how nice it was to have time away from her hospital room.
Initially, Myers wasn’t feeling too well and feared the pizza party would be cheesy. However, she said that after taking some medicine and hearing about the excitement of the superheroes at the event, she decided to check it out.
Besides, she happened to have her own anime character costume in her bag. Donning a long blue dress with white cuffs and trims, she explained she was an American anime character, the waterbender Katara.
She was most excited to meet Batman, she said.
Superheroes bring joy
“Seeing the smiles and the excitement on the children’s faces — that’s exactly what this event is for,” said Patrick Brogan, a representative for Allied Integrity Marketing, who partnered with the hospital for the event. Brogan said they wanted to take all the hype of the upcoming movie and use it to help create awareness about the hospital.
“So many families are going to see the movie this weekend," Brogan said. "So why not take the movie and bring it to them?"
Brogan said the event took about three weeks to plan and was a joint effort between FM 97.5 radio station.
The hospital tries to do some type of event for the kids at least four to five times each week, said Julie Schwarz, a program coordinator at Phoenix Children's.
“Events like this just help brighten their days a bit by helping them forget for just a little while that they are in the hospital and about all the things that are going on with their health,” she said.
Schwarz said that Tuesday’s event was open to patients of every age and every diagnosis as long as they got their nurses' approval.
One of them was 4-year-old Kieran Waller, who was trying to play foosball with Superman during the event.
His mother, Heidi Southerland, said her son has been in the hospital for about one week after suffering from a bad concussion and nerve damage following a motor vehicle accident.
Southerland said she was so happy to see her son smile in the midst of such a hard time. She said it had been hard to motivate her son to get out of bed -- until Superman came along.
The pizza party and the appearance of the superheroes showed all the patients at the hospital that they’re “not forgotten,” said Michelle Myers, Diamond's mother.
“After being here a month and after being here a couple of days, you begin to lose track of time and people stop coming by,” Michelle Myers said. “You start to feel like a lost society of people, so when they do events like this, it shows that people care.”
She added that a trip to the movie theater for her daughter involves extreme measures, like wearing gloves and face masks and bringing disinfectant. The event allowed the patients to feel "normal" because they could be openly hooked up to their machines and IVs.
Michelle Myers said that for the majority of Diamond’s life, people have made her daughter into a victim of her health problems. However, she said her daughter and other Phoenix Children’s Hospital patients are some of the bravest people she has met.
“She’s not a victim, she's not a poor thing, she’s not hopeless or helpless,” Michelle Myers said. “There are kids here that have more courage than a grown man who has a cold.”
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