MEET CHEMO DUCK
Chemo Duck is Gabe's My Heart's unique play therapy tool for helping children understand cancer treatment.
CHEMO DUCK IS:
• A 12” soft play therapy tool.
• Designed to be soothing and visually appealing.
• Designed to mirror the child’s body during chemotherapy,
without being fear-provoking.
• Dressed in hospital pajamas and a bandana.
• Available in 2 models, Port or Hickman.
• Furnished with an arm immobilizer. Accompanied by a
bilingual, educational book to explain how best to use
your duck.
• Accompanied by a mini DVD with educational materials
for parents.
The Port and Hickman are the two different types of catheters used to carry chemotherapy into the body.
HICKMAN
The Hickman is a line (or two lines) coming directly out of the chest area. It remains there constantly and must be kept clean and dry. Certain types of chemotherapy require more than one medicine at once so a Hickman line is preferable.
PORT
Most of the time the port appears to be a small bump under the skin. During hospital visits the port is accessed by a small needle to enable the nurses to draw blood or administer medicine.
NO-NO ARM IMMOBILIZER
Most children will need a peripheral
IV at some point during treatment.
The arm immobilizer keeps the arm
straight and protects the peripheral
i.v. line.
CHEMO DUCK GOALS
Chemo Duck is Gabe’s My Heart’s premier product, to educate children about their treatment in an age appropriate manner. The Duck is usually introduced to families by trained child life staff in hospitals, thus ensuring that families are aware of how best to use Chemo Duck.
Play therapy is the most instinctive mode of expression for children and promotes comfortable communication between families. Chemo Duck naturally promotes play therapy in children while allowing parents to effortlessly demonstrate purposeful modeling for their children. Parents are now able to shift into the indispensable position of primary educator in their child’s healthcare team. Chemo Duck Works approach to “Whole Family” anxiety reduction is innovative as it achieves four distinct objectives:
• As an educational tool to be used by the hospital staff to teach and prepare children for treatment through education, role-play and rehearsal.
• As a means to empower the parent, restoring the role of primary educator/caregiver and including the parent in the child’s healthcare team.
• As a companion, to share the child’s journey through treatment and provide a learning tool with which children can discover about cancer treatment in a fun, developmentally appropriate manner.
• As a way to reach out into the community and educate peers and siblings about cancer in an age appropriate manner.