Give Paws
For an hour every Sunday, Connor O’Boyle, MG17 (MBS), M21, and Dublin, his three-year-old English cream golden retriever, visit patients at the Floating Hospital for Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit via Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s Paws for People volunteer program. When possible, O’Boyle even lifts the seventy-five-pound pup atop a sterile sheet on patients’ beds. “Dublin is super gentle and just leans into the kids,” said O’Boyle, who plans to specialize in pediatrics. “You can see them melt and brighten.” And it’s not just the children who get a kick out of Dublin: Parents, nurses, and doctors all await his weekly walkthroughs. “Everyone cheers,” O’Boyle said. “He brings a little bit of pure joy.”
This article originally ran in the Winter 2019 issue of Tufts Medicine.