Flu season not going to keep Santa away from Oklahoma children’s hospital

Santa Claus is still coming to town. Or in this case, he’s still scheduled to make his Christmas visit to The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

The H1N1 Grinch is not going to win this one.

Typically, business groups, church groups, organizations and individuals make a point to visit the children this time of year. However, because of the seasonal flu, and especially the H1N1 virus, The Children’s Hospital currently has a Level 2 visitation policy, said Debbie Parris, a nursing director at the hospital. So, visitation is restricted to those 12 years and older and two visitors per patient in a room at a time.

But remember the good news.

"Probably the one thing that hasn’t changed this year — we are assured that Santa is coming Christmas morning,” said Whitney Moore, a child life specialist at Children’s. "He’s making his stop and he said he’s taking good care of himself to stay well.”

A little different this year

In years past, the holiday season was a very busy time at Children’s, Moore said. Typically from Thanksgiving through Christmas, they would have two to four special visitor groups a week coming in and either doing a craft with the patients and families, providing toys or just bringing with them a sense of the holiday season.

"And so that’s been a little different for us this year, to go from that to really thinking outside the box and utilizing what we have at the hospital,” Moore said.

"We have small playrooms on the units where we can still take kids that are in the hospital for other reasons than H1N1, the seasonal flu or other infectious diseases.

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