Hospital da Luz Setúbal offers now a surprise to children that are undertaking surgeries: electrical minicars to transport them down the hallways to the room where the intervention will take place. This short track might be intimidating enough, and this way, the journey to the operating room happens in a more relaxed and fun manner. The children themselves drive these minicars, always accompanied by the hospital’s medical and nursing teams, and under the supervision of one of the parents. The moments preceding a surgery and all that it involves – taking off their own clothes and putting on the hospital gown, going into the operating room on a gurney, and receiving the anaesthetic medication – are always moments of anxiety. Driving the minicar, when the condition of the child so permits, offers a distraction. The relaxation and good mood thus created have an impact on the clinical part: abstracted from the hospital environment, children are less apprehensive with the imminence of the surgery, calmer when falling asleep and therefore also when waking up and starting recovery. It is with great satisfaction that Hospital da Luz Setúbal offers now this possibility to the children that are received here and need health care.
