When three frightened sisters have an unusual interaction with the doctor, their mom decides to secretly record what’s happening. What the doctor did to the kids will make you cry.
Autumn, Chrysin, and Winter all wore glum expressions. Even though Autumn was the one who needed treatment at the hospital, all three girls hated the clinical environment and longed to be back outside playing. They sat in the waiting room, watching as children, all similar in age to them, were called in one by one. Then they began to feel uncomfortable. None of them had been to the hospital before, and being surrounded by ill people wasn’t exactly the fun afternoon they’d all had in mind.
Autumn began to fidget in her seat and asked her mom for a drink of water. She winced as she took a small sip. Two weeks ago, she had developed strep throat, and her symptoms were getting worse, which is how she’d ended up in the hospital waiting room. The little girl glanced around and began to feel worried when she noticed none of the other children were smiling. Even after being seen by a doctor, many of the kids still had sad faces, and some were even crying. But Autumn and her sisters were about to have a very unique hospital experience.
With no other child care options, their mom had no choice but to take all three girls to the hospital with her. It was the school holiday, and Chrysin and Winter had been happily playing in the yard of their home in Jacksonville, Florida. Autumn had been stuck inside, curled up on the couch watching TV. She’d spiked a fever, and her tonsils were inflamed, which was worrying her mom. The strep throat had been troubling the little girl for a few weeks now, but she was definitely getting worse. So her mom decided the best course of action was to go to the Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
At first, Winter and Chrysin complained about having to go, but when they saw how ill their sister looked, they began to feel sorry for her. So they reluctantly got in their mom’s car and tried to cheer Autumn up on the journey. Now that they were at the hospital, though, none of them were feeling too brave. Their mom tried to sweeten the deal, promising to take them all out for ice cream once Autumn was better, but she could tell her girls were feeling worried. Unfortunately, the hospital was very busy, and the long wait did nothing to ease their anxiety.
Fortunately, the family was called into a room and told that Dr. Chima Matthew would be with them shortly. Autumn looked at her sisters, with tears springing into her eyes. Her throat was very sore, and now she was scared the doctor would make it worse.
Dr. Matthew was the youngest doctor on duty that day. He had always known he wanted to go into medicine, but when his younger brother became ill, he’d seen the way one of the doctors had tried to make his experience better. That’s when he knew that working with children was what he wanted to do too. Chima remembered his brother’s illness like it was yesterday. When he’d first been admitted to the hospital, he’d seen the fear in his brother’s eyes. Being the older sibling, he needed to act tough, but he’d been terrified too.
To start with, the doctor looking after his brother had been professional, but there was no warmth to his care and conduct. But when his brother was assigned a new doctor who better fitted his treatment plan, everything changed. The new doctor always had a smile on his face, no matter how busy he was.
Chima had been at an age where he understood just how rushed off his feet all doctors were, but still, this one made time to talk and crack jokes. It wasn’t just his brother the doctor treated kindly; it was as if he could also sense Chima’s discomfort, and his kindness extended to the older boy. Although the medicine played a huge part in making his brother well again, Chima did not doubt that the doctor’s positive attitude had helped massively. From that moment on, he knew exactly what kind of doctor he would be.
When he went through his medical training, the job had its downsides though. Working with children was one of the most rewarding things Chima could think of, but no matter how hard he tried, some children just couldn’t be saved. It was a sad reality that the young doctor had lost count of how many funerals he attended of former patients, and each one was just as difficult as the last. On more than one occasion, Chima had been told he cared too much, but as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing. In his job, he’d seen his fair share of doctors and nurses who could switch off their emotions, but he just wasn’t that kind of person. Yes, he cared a lot, but that was what made him so good at his job.
Dr. Matthew didn’t do the job for praise and thanks, though; he did it because he genuinely enjoyed it and wanted to make even just a small difference. He’d always remember how he felt when his brother was in the hospital, and the terrified look on his face upon entrance would forever be etched on his mind. If he could just stop one kid a day from feeling like that, then it was all worth it. Things had gotten tough at the hospital recently, though.
They were severely short-staffed, and budget cuts had led to a feeling of discontent in some departments. Chima had watched as the people around him became more stressed, more overworked, and lost their spark. There was no denying that he went home every day feeling exhausted and angry that the great team around him couldn’t get on with their jobs like they wanted to. Smiling his way through the day was becoming harder and harder, but he was about to show the world what it meant to be a dedicated pediatrician with his little patient’s interest in mind.
A faint knock on the door pulled the three sisters out of their daydream, and Dr. Matthew swiftly entered the room. The girls had been imagining an old man in a white coat, but Dr. Matthew was young, even younger than their mom, they guessed. He wore sea-green scrubs with a stethoscope slung around his neck. Autumn stifled a giggle. She’d caught glimpses of all the medical dramas her mom watched and thought the stethoscope thing was only something they did on TV. But when the young doctor began to speak, the little girl’s fear returned. Autumn shifted in her seat uncomfortably, in a motion that seemed to be catching, as Chrysin and Winter did the same.
So far, Dr. Matthew had introduced himself to the whole room and then directed all his questions at their mom, but now their girls’ shuffling seemed to have caught his attention. He glanced over at them, taking them in one by one. Little did the sisters know, Dr. Matthew was getting a flashback.
Chima couldn’t help but notice how the three sisters sitting in front of him shifted awkwardly in their seats. It had started with the little girl he was here to examine, Autumn, but then her discomfort had spread to the other children, and they all squirmed with frightened looks on their faces. He could remember that feeling well. Chima and his brother had a 10-year age gap, so when his little brother fell ill, Chima had been 16, old enough to fully understand just how severe his illness had been.
Even now, the young doctor thanked his lucky stars that his brother had pulled through and was now on the verge of graduating high school and heading off to college. He remembered the day that his mom had driven them to the hospital to hear his brother’s test results, how she’d been unable to stop the tears that flowed, and how his little brother didn’t understand what was happening, but his frightened face told Chima that he still understood enough to know it wasn’t good.
Chima remembered hugging his mom and squeezing his little brother’s hand to tell him everything was going to be okay. The reality was that he had no idea whether it would be okay or not, and he felt just as upset as his mom and just as frightened as his brother. With no father around, it had been up to Chima to stay brave and strong enough for all of them.
Dr. Matthew’s notes told him Autumn had strep throat, nothing to be too concerned about, thankfully, but he could understand why she was feeling so scared. And given the high temperature and the pain, he was fully aware of how small issues could feel like big things to young kids. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. He was already behind schedule; he barely had a moment to breathe that day, and the last six hours of his shift had been manic.
The easy thing to do would be to examine the girl and then send the family on their way with a prescription. It’s what most doctors would do when they were rushed off their feet, but Chima wasn’t like most doctors. And despite his extremely busy and tiring day, the looks on the girls’ faces brought back too many memories for him to ignore.
Turning to Autumn, Dr. Matthew explained that he would need to take a look at her throat and have a feel of the glands in her neck. He also wanted to run some basic checks like temperature and blood pressure. The little girl’s eyes were wide with shock as she fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. He watched as one of the sisters reached out and squeezed Autumn’s hand in a reassuring move, the same way he’d done to his brother all those years ago.
Chima smiled warmly at the girls and reached into his pocket to pull out his cell phone. “First, we need to do a warm-up exercise,” he said to the girls. He placed his phone on the examination bed, and within a few seconds, “Rolex” by
Ayo & Teo began to play. The girls were confused. They’d heard the song all over the radio, and loads of the kids at school, them included, practiced the moves from the video during recess. But why had the doctor put the song on?
Before they knew it, Dr. Matthew began to make the signature moves the girls knew well. Autumn couldn’t help but smile, and when Chima waved to the little girl, signaling for her to join in, she sprang to her feet with more energy than she had in weeks. Winter and Chrysin soon joined their sister, and before long, the three girls and their doctor were all dancing together, laughing and smiling.
The girls’ mom couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She’d tried everything to cheer her kids up, but here was this doctor dancing around and making all three of her girls feel on top of the world. She quickly pulled her phone out of her purse and hit record. The young doctor was so wrapped up in entertaining the kids that he had no idea he was being recorded.
The mom felt tears welling up as she watched her kids dancing and laughing. Two minutes out of this young doctor’s day was going to have a lasting impression on her daughters. When the song ended, Dr. Matthew applauded the three girls, who were all now giggling and excited. He put his phone back in his pocket and started Autumn’s examination, which the young girl now seemed to have no problems with.
It was a fairly quick and simple examination, and Chima wrote a script for some antibiotics and pain relief. The mom couldn’t thank him enough for making her girls feel happy and at ease. As the family left, Chima couldn’t help but smile at the fact he helped them all feel a little less frightened. He assumed his interaction with the girls was over, but he was wrong.
That evening, Autumn’s mother wrote an email to the Children’s Hospital praising Dr. Matthew for the way he’d understood that all three girls were scared, and he’d managed to cheer them up and make them feel comfortable. She’d seen just how busy the waiting room was, and she had no doubt how overworked the doctor had been.
But the fact that he’d taken the time to do what he had spoke volumes about him as a person. She attached the video as proof and turned her phone off, believing she would never hear from them again. But the next day, Wolfson Children’s Hospital shared the video on its Facebook page. However, no one realized just how much of an impact it would have.
In no time at all, the video went viral and was viewed over 11 million times, attracting over 177,000 comments from people all over the world. Some shared their stories of similar encounters with Dr. Matthew, claiming he was the best doctor they’d ever met. Others simply wanted to acknowledge that the world needed more people like him.
Many people were moved to tears by the young doctor’s passion for his job. When Dr. Matthew saw the post and the attention he had gained, he couldn’t believe it. To him, he hadn’t done anything special; he’d just been doing his job. But then he remembered the cold, stony-faced doctor his brother had first encountered, and he remembered that not everyone clicked with their patients the way he did. To him, it had been simple—the girls had been frightened, and the easiest way to make them feel better was to make them smile. If that meant spending two minutes dancing around, then so be it.
Reading through all the comments lifted the tired doctor’s spirits immensely. Sure, the job was tough and probably always would be, but it was clear that he was making a small difference in people’s lives, and that’s all he’d ever wanted to do. The video attracted the attention of local news outlets, and soon Chima found himself posing for photos with Winter, Chrysin, and Autumn.
The first time all three girls met him again, they ran over and enveloped him in tight hugs before asking if he’d learned any new dance moves. Their mom laughed and once again thanked Chima for everything he’d done for her girls. She reminded him that it would have been easy to ignore Winter and Chrysin and just get on with Autumn’s examination, but the fact he’d taken time out of his busy schedule to put them all at ease was something none of them would ever forget.
As the excitement over the viral video began to calm down, Chima once again found himself thinking about everything that had led him to the career he had. The fact that he could still remember the positive impact that his brother’s doctor had on the whole family meant there had to be some truth in the comments on the video. He really was helping people in more ways than one, and right there and then, Chima vowed that no matter how tired he was or how busy he was, he would never stop caring as much as he did now.
