Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford serves some of the country’s most critically ill children, often performing operations like open-heart surgeries and kidney transplants. This means that even with world-class level treatments, many of their young patients often require long-term or intensive care for months or years.
In these cases, the question then becomes how do you save not just a life, but the childhood that comes with it?
The hospital, located in Palo Alto, hosted on Monday a private screening of Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” for the children under their care who cannot make a trip to movie theaters. It was held in a room in the hospital’s lounge, where a projection screen spanned an entire wall.
In this softly lit room, Woody, Buzz and their friends faced new challenges together, while the children — who followed along with laughter — were either nestled in a blanket or resting their head upon the shoulder of a parent.
Throughout the film, the soundtrack was overlaid with murmurs and chuckles from both the children and their parents, who would occasionally walk out of the room and walk back in moments later with an armful of snacks from the lounge. It would be a lie to say that everyone was so consumed in the moment that they had forgotten their reason for being in that room, but safe to say everyone there was enjoying a beautiful afternoon surrounded by people they loved.
However, among these children who aren’t yet able to leave the hospital, some don’t even have the luxury of leaving their rooms. Since exposure to other kids poses such a serious risk to their health, they must resort to watching the movie alone, separate from the others.
Lucile Packard officials know that, however difficult, it is necessary to animate the lives of these children in particular, so they enlisted the help of an expert.
So, besides providing a private screening of “Toy Story 5” to patients, the hospital also brought in Bob Pauley, one of Pixar’s animation studio artists.
Pixar in person
Pauley’s first stop was to the room of 6-year-old Romero Martinez, who has undergone seven heart surgeries.
When the artist walked into Romero’s room and introduced himself as the man responsible for the Toy Story characters on the young patient’s TV screen, Romero couldn’t help but look over at his parents in disbelief. Pauley sat down next to the child and handed him a sketchpad, and it wasn’t long before they both started drawing.
When Pauley asked Romero what he wanted to start with, he eagerly replied, “Lilypad,” a frog-shaped smart tablet, which becomes one of Bonnie’s favorite toys in the movie.
A few minutes into drawing, Pauley looked at Romero’s drawing.
“That’s unfair, you’re so good at this!” the Pixar artist said.
In a small yet playfully assertive voice, the young patient responded, “I’ll take your job.”
Romero’s mother said that since he was 2 years old, he has loved art and has been drawing the characters from the Toy Story franchise.
Accompanying Pauley was Elizabeth Valente, the public relations manager at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. Halfway through the visit, Valente asked him, “What do you like about this?”
Without hesitation, Pauley smiled. “Sitting and drawing with the kids.”
Pauley and Romero went on for another half an hour drawing together, and for that period, saving a childhood meant nothing more than two people building a world together, one that could be enjoyed rather than endured.