Fargo, North Dakota – Sanford Children’s Hospital in Fargo had a different appearance for afternoon rounds on Tuesday.
Employees changed out their scrubs for costumes in order to dress up and provide Halloween candy to patients.
“There are kids in costumes who are just waiting for people to come to their door,” Sanford Health’s Dana Davis said. “You can tell, this is their day. Halloween is their thing.”
While Davis had never volunteered before, “Backwards Halloween” is a long-standing custom at Sanford.
“It’s pretty awesome. I get choked up,” she said. “It’s an easy thing to do, to put a smile on someone else’s face.”
For several patients, like 10-year-old Addison Wosick, staff members did just that.
“I didn’t think I was going to do anything on Halloween,” Wosick said.
She reported feeling better after being admitted from Grand Forks on Friday due to a neutropenic fever.
“It was a lot of fun. A lot of different people came in with fun costumes,” she said. “I liked the Hocus Pocus.”
Squishmallows, spiral art, and glow-in-the-dark slime were among the items in Wosick’s bucket.
“I’m very happy. I feel very special,” she said.
She has a new dream as a result.
“After all this happened I wanted to be a nurse,” Wosick said. “I like doing nurse stuff.”
“Halloween is such a kid-centric holiday,” Davis added. “To have to miss it, for not such fun reasons, it was a no-brainer to dig out a costume and come up with some treats.”
