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Hospital Housekeeper Cora Stetson Helps Children Heal

Cora Stetson, a cleaner at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, does more than clean: she helps sick kids get well.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on February 23 2010

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Cora Stetson’s job description doesn’t include making kids laugh. For this housekeeper at Cincinnati’s Shriners Hospital for Children, that’s just a bonus service.

Cora, 57, began working at the Shriners Hospital three years ago, and was hired simply based on her cleaning skills and experience. But it soon became clear to everyone at the hospital that Cora had another talent: she had a winning way with children. When she enters kids’ hospital rooms to tidy up, she takes time to entertain them with a song, a dance, or a funny story. Even though many of the children are ill and in severe pain, Cora helps them feel better simply by spending time with them.

“Kids know, as soon as they see her face, they can relax,” the hospital’s child life specialist, Allison Morgan, told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “They can just have fun, be a kid and be playful.”

For one of the Shriners children, a 5-year-old burn victim from Israel named Ravid Sulam, every day is met with excruciating pain. She speaks no English, and was initially afraid of the hospital staff. But she found a friend in Cora.

“As soon as she found out Cora was ‘safe,’ Cora could do no wrong. Everything Cora did was funny,” Morgan said. “She got Ravid to crack up to the point where we thought her trach was going to pop out.”

Though Ravid’s doctors initially believed the little girls injuries were so severe that she would never walk again, after a year of recovery in the hospital, she was ready to try. But every time Ravid’s physical therapists urged her to stand up, she would cry. It was too painful.

But Cora came up with a solution. She would enter Ravid’s room marching, smiling, and cheering, pretending to be in a parade. She would urge Ravid to march along with her—and after several weeks of painful attempts, Ravid was able to walk. 

In December, Ravid was finally discharged from the hospital. “She can use fingers, she can hug us,” said Ravid’s mother, Ayelet Sulam. “She can walk. She can eat. She can see. She’s doing great.”

And in Ravid’s former room is another scared and injured child, who’s sure to be smiling as soon as Cora steps in.

Filed under: General Interest, Health and Wellbeing, Heroes,

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