Lyndsay Burginger
Nothing heals more than laughter and smiling and this pediatric neurosurgery physician assistant from Orange County, California knows just want to do when his patients are feeling a little under the weather. In 2017, 42-year-old Tony Adkins decided to break out into dance for one of his patients to cheer them up. Seeing how happy it made the patient (and also himself), Tony started adding dancing into his medical practice to get patients to smile, laugh and enjoy themselves during a scary and stressful time.
Videos by Rare
Since then the Dancing Doc’s Youtube videos have gone viral on social media, sharing his joy and happiness with people around the world. Just check out this video and see the magic he brings into Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
The army veteran shares that dancing with his patients falls in line with CHOC’s commitment to preserving the magic of childhood. Studies have also shown that laughter and smiling encourage physical health benefits and lowers stress hormones. Tony shares that laughter “is more powerful than some pain medications.”
Dancing also gets the kids up and moving.
It has a clinical value as it allows me to assess a patient’s physical abilities, mobility and recovery process. I recently had a patient who reluctant to get out of bed after surgery, but when I came in one morning to see him, an invitation to dance got him out of bed and moving. After we finished dancing, he kept going and starting doing laps around the hospital floor – it was awesome to see.
Tony Adkins isn’t the only dancing doctor hitting headlines. Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte, a dermatologist and director of Boutte Contour Surgery & Skin in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, botched a cosmetic surgery while hip-hop dancing in the surgery room. 10 patients who have had cosmetic procedures from Dr. Windell Boutte have joined together to sue her and suspend her medical license.
Editors Note: This article was originally published on October 12, 2018.
