It’s hard to lose dedicated, hardworking employees. Texas Children’s has been fortunate to have Child Life Specialist and facility dog handler Meg Gustafson for the last nine years, but July 19 will be her last day as she and Angus head to Mississippi. They will continue their child life and trauma-related work while Meg pursues a graduate degree at Mississippi State University.
This was not an easy decision for Meg, but grad school was something she had thought about off and on for several years. She stayed in touch with several professors from undergrad and one asked if she would be interested in doing a graduate assistantship with her. Through this program, Meg and Angus will work with families in a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TRBI) course educating caregivers on meeting the basic needs of children impacted by trauma, providing them tactics for emotional regulation and helping the kids get back to just being kids. They’ll also be working with Mississippi State child life students on a local hospital’s pediatric unit with the ultimate goal of creating a designated child life program for the hospital.
Meg is bringing beautiful memories of her time at Texas Children’s with her. “Getting to see the growth of the program, The Zone opening, the Teddy Bear Clinic, and of course, learning we were getting a dog at West Campus and being hired as the handler – gosh, it’s so hard to narrow down,” Meg recalled.
Certified Angus
It’s even harder for her to narrow down her favorite moments with Angus. “We’ve gone out and done the first pitch at the Space Cowboys game for the last two years. We’ve partnered with Katy High School on their toy drive. Getting to dive into the community has been an awesome part of being here,” said Meg. Not to mention all the love for her overgrown lap dog from both team members and patients. “We have hundreds of pictures of him in people’s laps. He just wants to be held,” she laughed.
The patient encounters are what really stay with her though. She shared a couple of her most memorable moments:
“We had a patient who was four or five and refusing to walk after surgery. But he said he would do it for Angus. He only walked from his bed to the nurse’s station, but his mom was in the background crying because he hadn’t even wanted to take a step.”
“We also had an older teen diagnosed with leukemia. Angus and I were present for her diagnosis conversation and then she transferred to the Med Center. But her parents emailed me she was coming to West Campus for a follow up and it happened to be the one-year anniversary of her diagnosis. She had knit Angus a bandana and wrote this really sweet note. He loves everybody, but there are just certain patients he really connects with.”
A Fond Farewell
West Campus will have an Angus-shaped hole in its heart, but we know they are going to continue their life-changing work. Texas Children’s wishes both Meg and Angus all the best and encourage you all to do the same on their Viva Engage page!
