ATLANTA (AP) - Bedbound for about a year now, Delores Dobson does not venture outdoors much.
So, the patient at PruittHealth Home Health in Flowery Branch let her mind wander far and wide when asked to make a wish that might come true.
Her first thought was skydiving despite a fear of heights.
“I thought if it was possible to somehow be on the oxygen and I could go in a suit, why couldn’t I go on the back of someone who skydives and have that ride?” Dobson said. “(But) I figured there was no way in the world that someone could hold on to me.”
Instead, the 79-year-old Flowery Branch woman opted to lean toward her love of animals and ask to visit a zoo.
Her request was granted through PruittHealth Home Health’s partnering program Second Wind Dreams.
“We provide dreams for patients,” said Terri Fain, a patient care coordinator at PruittHealth.
Each of PruittHealth’s offices in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida receives money to make a wish come true for a patient.
“We interview the patients and then look at all the different dreams and take a poll and pick one or two, depending on what the dreams are and what we are looking at for the cost,” Fain said.
She said granting the wish not only provides patients with an adventure, but is an opportunity to make the public more aware about the geriatric population.
Dobson was selected as the winner of this year’s Second Wind Dreams. Her prize was a trip to the zoo Friday in Atlanta.
“This one I think is going to be our most extravagant so far for our office,” Fain said before departing for the trip.
Part of the extravagance comes from transporting a patient who was on oxygen for his or her intended outing.
For example, Dobson had to be driven to Atlanta in an ambulance with three paramedics because of her medical conditions. She was accompanied by one of her nurses, Sabrina McCollum.
An accident at work, a bad spine and arthritis limited her mobility several years ago.
“Four years ago, I was still by myself, but I was wobbly and had several falls and broken ribs and stuff like that,” Dobson said. “Then I had several spells. Those periods of times I couldn’t get out of bed. My body forgot the use of my legs. Just forgot how to use them.”
She underwent some physical therapy and regained some strength, but she said the most she could do was walk across the room. After that, she had another “spell” and couldn’t walk.
“I’ve been pretty much bedridden on and off for four years,” she said.
Therefore, she looked forward to her trip to Zoo Atlanta. Dobson, who will be 80 years old in June, said the last time she visited a zoo was when she was 18 or 20 years old and living in New York.
“When I went the last time, it was winter and you didn’t see too many (animals),” she said, adding she loved what she saw but it was disappointing.
This time around, she was most interested in seeing the pandas, especially the babies.
“I have been watching since they’ve moved here and televised it,” she said, referring to the baby pandas being born and then brought to the United States and Zoo Atlanta. “Every time they go back to China I start crying, because I think I’m never going to see any baby panda bears.”
But since then, Zoo Atlanta has received a new set of babies.
“I want so bad to go see them,” she said before the trip.
She also looked forward to seeing “the big cats” at the zoo.
“I just pretty much love all animals,” she said.
Dobson’s daughter, Cindy Cunningham, said her mother has “been turned inside out” since learning she was going.
“It has really helped her,” Cunningham said. “She’s had something to look forward too. She’s been a lot more happy and positive.”
Dobson prepared herself for the trip by buying a new outfit.
“I had my daughter go out and buy me makeup,” she said. “We were practicing this morning!”
She even bragged about her other daughter, Donna Patterson, giving her a manicure and pedicure before the trip.
“She’s going to get all gussied up and get her hair done. She’s going to look good,” Cunningham said.
While Dobson was obviously excited for the trip, she said she doesn’t feel she deserves it.
“That floored me that first off my nurse, Sabrina, put my name in it,” she said. “Then when she told me that I won I couldn’t believe it. Every once in a while I think I’m dreaming.”
But she was not. On Friday morning, Dobson was wheeled around Zoo Atlanta, including a stop at the panda exhibit.
“I got in to see the pandas,” Dobson said, indicating it was her favorite part. “I enjoyed all the animals. I even went into the petting zoo. I was petting goats and sheep. It took me back years. I felt like a big kid. It brought tears to my eyes. Not that I was sad, but it was happy tears.”
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Information from: The Times, https://www.gainesvilletimes.com
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