She eases fears at Children's Hospital

Visiting the hospital doesn't scare 4-year-old Nella Harting. Like hundreds of children before her, Nella associates Children's Hospital Boston not with doctors, painful procedures, or illness, but with Myra Fox, also known as "the play lady."

Director of child-life services, Fox has dedicated herself for the past four decades to improving hospital life for all of the children who pass through Children's doors.

"I don't fix bones and I don't fix hearts," said Fox, who gives her age as "young at heart." "But I felt I could really influence the environment to make it pleasant for kids."

Anyone under 40 -- even if that person has never visited Children's -- may remember Fox and her playroom from "Curious George Goes to the Hospital," which Margret and H.A. Rey wrote after Fox gave them a tour back in 1966.

Fox now oversees 700 volunteers, 18 child-life specialists, and a troop of clowns. She also directs a program to help children hospitalized for long periods keep up with schoolwork.

Fox roams the hospital on the lookout for children and parents in distress. That's how she met Nella and her mother, Heidi Harting. Weakened by a liver disorder, Nella, then about 18 months old, was refusing to walk despite her mother's exhortations.

In a moment, Fox assessed the situation and persuaded the Hartings to follow her to her office, where she produced a stroller with a doll for Nella. The little girl immediately stood up, her mother recalled. The encounter formed a bond that persists.

"My daughter just thought that was so great and magical," Harting said. "We see Myra every time we go to the hospital. It takes away especially my daughter's fear of going to the hospital, because there's always a visit to `Myra's house.' "

Children's hospitals were not always as playful as the patients who inhabit them. When Fox took the job in 1964, they were stark, sterile places. Cartoon characters did not dance on walls. Parents could not stay overnight. Children were expected to be "brave."

Garbed in the required plaid jumper, her pockets weighed down with toys, Fox aimed to remedy that. On hot days -- the hospital had no air-conditioning -- Fox pushed a cart filled with ice-cold lemonade through the halls. Her Victrola, just like the one that appears in "Curious George," played jaunty music.

"I would just take risks, but these were known risks because in my gut I knew they would work," Fox said. "The message was that kids need more than medicine to get well."

Now, at Children's Hospital, "play ladies" have morphed into child-life specialists with professional degrees who play an integral role in treatment.

Four years ago, the hospital's radiology department became one of the first in the country to hire a dedicated child-life specialist to counsel parents and help distract children during procedures.

"Now they're indispensable," said Dr. George Taylor, chief of radiology. "It's not just a fun thing to do; it actually helps you do more procedures and get them done faster because the kids are not nearly as stressed."

Identifying ways to improve life not just for children but also for their parents and even staff has become Fox's hallmark.

"Myra's basic philosophy is nurses can't work without child-life specialists and child-life specialists can't work without nurses," said Eileen Sporing, senior vice president of patient care operations.

This attitude can be contagious. The last time Harting visited the hospital with her children, Fox, as always, supplied them with new Beanie Babies. After leaving her office, the Hartings passed a little girl in a wheelchair and the siblings held a quick conference.

Then they gave one to the sick child.

"Myra, she just spreads goodness," Harting said.

On a recent afternoon Fox saw a young girl lying on the lobby floor, wailing. She immediately knelt down to offer the child a key-ring filled with glittering stars and moons.

"Look, it's magic," she said, as the girl's tears disappeared.

Seconds later, the child, all smiles, ran back to her father, clutching extra key rings for her two sisters, one of whom was hospitalized upstairs.

A little while later, after another successful encounter, Fox turned to the person next to her: "How can you not love this job?"