Portland woman brings joy and distraction to sick children - Heartwarming milestone for Jane
PORTLAND'S Jane Dillon says the memory of her hunched over her newborn son at hospital desperately trying to distract him from his pain is the motivation behind a well-loved project. For more than two years she has delivered her handmade teddy bears to Portland District Health Service destined for the sick kids getting treatment. She has just delivered her 100th bear to the hospital.
Ms Dillon has a vivid memory from 43 years ago of taking her son Adam to the hospital when he was just three weeks old after he had been consistently sick, where he had to have an operation on his stomach.
"But while he was in hospital the day after the surgery, he was in his little tiny crib and I'm just watching him... he was crying so much he had burst the incision and part of his bowel was actually coming out onto his tummy. The more he's cried, the more he's pushing, the nurses were all around me, but all busy doing other things, and I suddenly thought, 'well, it's up to me right now to stop him doing more damage'. So, right there and then I had to distract him, I felt I had to stop him thinking about the pain. I like to think I saved his life."
It was that memory which came front of mind during Ms Dillon's more recent hospital visit two years ago when hearing the cries of a child next to her.
"I'm sitting there thinking that baby really just needs to be distracted; if they could calm him down, then they might be able to work out what's wrong. So I thought, maybe they need something like teddies."
Ms Dillon said despite growing up watching her seamstress mother make ballgowns, she wasn't great at sewing herself.
"This is all trial and error," she said. "Sometimes the arms are too long or the legs are too wide or the ears are too long, so I just modify."
Ms Dillon said each teddy bear could take up to a couple hours tomake depending on how elaborate the outfit was, all made from recycled materials.
"They just evolved, I've had lovely neighbours who say, 'oh look, I've found this in the back of the cupboard' and they turn up with scraps," she said. "I'll just put it aside and the collection of fabric bits just seem to grow."
Ms Dillon's previous bear designs range anywhere from an elaborate ballgown to medical scrubs made out of the real material.
"There was one day last year that 12 operations were going to be handled on one day, with the ear, nose and throat department - there was a specialist coming in. So they [the health service] asked if I could I do something for them, so I said, 'well, can you give me a pair of scrubs?'. So I just made 12 of them [teddy bears], they even had their own little ID [badges] like nurses do."
Her efforts have earned her the moniker of "The Teddy Lady" around the local hospital, a title she wears with pride. While she never sees the children receive the bears she's made, Ms Dillon said she was happy to know she might have made a difference.
"The nurses say that it's been great, they've been able to distract the kids long enough to get a needle into them," she said. "Babies, I suppose because you're holding them, are a bit easier, but little toddlers ... if they don't want anyone to put a needle in their arm, they're going to do everything they can to kick and scream. So if they're looking at a teddy and the nurse is quick, they can put a needle into them, it works."
As well as the children, she hoped the teddy bears would help stressed parents.
