Letter to the Editor

For our regular bloggers, I thought you might be interested in the following story. As you might remember there was some press about "Izzy Adog," the therapy dog at UCSF Children's Hospital. Well I guess that someone wrote a scathing letter to the editor (see below) about The Chronicle's coverage of Izzy. I have a new acquaintnce named Sally who I met through the Parents' Advisory Council at UCSF. Sally wrote a terrific letter in response to this woman's criticism. Sally's letter sums up my feelings about so many aspects of having a child with cancer and with a disability.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/19/BAGC2PG5I447.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/26/EDGGTP3H4P1.DTL&hw=Izzy&sn=007&sc=049



Spare us cutesy stuff
Editor -- I cannot get your May 19 story about Izzy the poodle at UCSF out of my mind.
Could The Chronicle editors please spare its readers this sort of cutesy, upbeat reporting, where a happy face is painted on a tragedy?
The idea that a dog "brings joy to patients'' is negated by the reality of the heart-rending accompanying photos of suffering children held hostage to illness, science and the medical-pharmaceutical industry.
JANE Q. KENNEDY
San Francisco
Printed in SF Chronicle 5/26/07

Sally's response:

UCSF Children’s Hospital is using cutting edge technology in both the “hard” science of medicine and the less exact science of patient care. This includes bringing in Izzy the dog to raise the spirits of children (like my daughter) who are stuck in the hospital for days or weeks. This is neither “cutesy” nor “a happy face painted on a tragedy” as your reader Jane Kennedy so callously suggests in her letter. (May 26) It is reality. Jane, be honest, it’s not the uplifting story about the dog you want out of the paper, it is the picture of the sick child. Well, pay attention: these children are right here, part of your community. Most of the time these children are ignored because it’s too hard for people like Jane to look. Fortunately, UCSF Children’s hospital is there, trying to address all aspects of a child’s existence. There are amazing things happening at UCSF and Izzy is just one of them. Thanks to the Chronicle for giving just a glimpse of this to the Jane’s of this world who would rather look away.

Sally C. McDonald