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KSP is helping people...

InterCity

By InterCity
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InterCity

InterCity

Posted
Posted

Hello, fellow kerbonauts,

I am here to share a story that has happened to me over the course of the last week that ended up in a kid's happiness and where KSP has played an integral part. I'm still pretty astonished that things like that, even though they might sound as little, have so much impact on my way of thinking.

As some of you probably know, I work as an internal surgeon in a small regional hospital in the heart of Europe. I usually work long shifts, since there is a terrible lack of internists (or any doctors for that matter). As such, I often find myself taking night supervision? shifts at the hospital. It usually doesn't involve much real work, everyone is sleeping, only sometimes things go bad with some patients or someone gets sick in the dead of night. I usually spend that time either chatting with other people unfortunate enough to have a night supervision shift (the rules require at least one doctor per ward in the hospital at any given moment) or - you guessed it - playing KSP.

And just as I am finishing my latest SSTO, I get that strange feeling one has when someone is watching him from behind. I turned around and saw a little boy, about six years old, standing right behind the ready room armchair I was sitting on with my laptop. He was watching my screen.

I put the laptop on the coffee table and stood up to maintain at least some dignity, since I've just been caught playing games at work. But it doesn't seem to concern the little guy. He still keeps looking at the screen with his mouth slightly open. He didn't look terribly good, he was pale and his eyes were watery, he was coughing and likely had fever at that time, but that didn't stop him from asking:
"Is this a plane?"
"Yes", I said, double surprised with his sudden appearance and his apparent interest in SSTO Spaceplanes.

"And will it fly?"
I pressed the "Launch" button, took off, and rocketed towards the sky. I looked at him, and he was positively delighted.

I didn't go all the way to the orbit. Instead, I reverted to SPH and showed him the basics of building planes. The first plane he has built flew nicely, and I found myself teaching him rocket science and basic physics for the following half an hour. Then I realised that the paediatric ward was going to miss him, and took him back there. The nurse was my good friend, so things went quite smoothly, even though she probably had a word with that kid. I thought the story was over there, but it wasn't.

The following day I had the afternoon shift. It was quite a mess, a lot of people decided to have appendicitis operated that day. After three routine operations, I was ready to go home, only to have the doctor of the paediatric ward come to me and tell me that her patient was asking for me. So I went there, and he had me playing "The plane game" with him for another hour (where he successfully learned that rockets don't go straight up to space). 

This more or less happened again three more times. I'd always come to the paediatric after shift, play KSP for about an hour, and then go home. I didn't think much about it at that time, for me it was just a sick kid wanting to play a computer game. I didn't ask for his diagnosis or anything; I was just trying to make him happy. I know how much it helps to be entertained when you're ill. Over these days, he was recovering. 

Today, I went there again, played some more KSP (We launched a space station core together), then went back to my car. The nurse from the first night has stopped me on the way. She thanked me for coming to the kid and playing games with him. She said that he was an orphan with a case of bronchitis, quite a severe one, and he was alone in the hospital for three days before his adventure. She also told me that he was sad, and his sickness was getting worse at first and then rapidly recovering, the turning point being that night when he came over to the internal ward. 

I said the usual "That was nothing", as the social conventions require me to, but inside I was thinking about what happened. How a little game can help a sick kid to get better. I know about the effects of the state of mind on the human body, and I think this might just be one of those cases, since he is recovering now.

He's still there, in the hospital, and he probably will be there for about two more days before they release him. I think I might be coming again tomorrow, docking some more modules to the station. He should be interested...

 

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Landge

Landge

Posted
Posted (edited)

As I was reading I was getting knots in my stomach, thinking; Please, don't end bad. Please, don't end bad.

Here's wishing your new KSP buddy a speedy recovery.

+1 for you for spending time to entertain him. Now would whoever is cutting onions over here please stop. 

Edited by Landge
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Elway358

Elway358

Posted
Posted

You should be extremely proud of yourself for spending time with him the way you did. I work as a Registered Nurse on a med-surg floor of a local hospital and so often we hear from patients how they wished their doctor or nurse would spend just a little more time even just for general chit chat. Even though we all try to spend as much time as possible with our patients, it's very easy to get in a tunnel vision state and go into task mode and head home.

You sir, went above and beyond the call of duty and probably changed the opinions and lives of more than one person that day; much respect :cool:

 

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GDJ

GDJ

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, KasperVld said:

Hi @InterCity, would you happen to know if the kid has access to a computer that would be able to run KSP? We'd love to send a free copy of the game his way :)

Very decent move KasperVld. :)

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SlabGizor117

SlabGizor117

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, Landge said:

As I was reading I was getting knots in my stomach, thinking; Please, don't end bad. Please, don't end bad.

Here's wishing your new KSP buddy a speedy recovery.

+1 for you for spending time to entertain him. Now would whoever is cutting onions over here please stop. 

Don't worry, this isn't imgur. :P

 

Nice story though InterCity, I wish I had the opportunity to share KSP with someone, it's cool to see something so "mysterious" make sense to people when you explain it.

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KasperVld

KasperVld

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Dman979 said:

I think that this is a great idea. @KasperVld, how can we help?

Find a charity or scholarship organisation that you feel comfortable supporting. It's way out of our scope to set something like that up, especially when there are many, many charitable organisations out there :)

 

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adsii1970

adsii1970

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, KasperVld said:

Find a charity or scholarship organisation that you feel comfortable supporting. It's way out of our scope to set something like that up, especially when there are many, many charitable organisations out there :)

 

We are not looking for a tax exemption, but a way to support KSP/Squad's humanitarian efforts. It wouldn't have to be anything more than a PayPal account where we could send donations to that Squad could draw from. It would allow us - KSP players - to be a part of giving and the sharing of a truly great mentally therapeutic game. If nothing else, the Squad Store, where many of us have purchased KSP, could have an option through it to receive such donations.

IN other words, there are a few of us here that really want to help... :)

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