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Balloons and Kazoos in Hand, Israeli Clowns Accompany Surgeons into Operating Rooms
(AP-Washington Post) Over the last few years, Israeli clowns have been popping into hospital operating rooms and intensive care units with balloons and kazoos in hand, teaming up with doctors to develop laughter therapies they say help with disorders ranging from pain to infertility. Elsewhere, clowns visit pediatric wards to cheer up young patients, but in most places the clowning ends where the medicine begins. "We see medical clowns as an integral part of the health care team," said Dr. Arthur Eidelman, recently retired chief of pediatrics at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and chair of the scientific committee of Dream Doctors, Israel's hospital clowning guild. A clown is present at about one out of five of the hospital's full anesthesia surgeries for children. A study found that a clown's presence in pre-op reduces the amount of anesthesia administered and speeds up a patient's recovery time. An Israeli study published last year in a leading reproductive science journal suggested that a woman's chances of getting pregnant after in-vitro fertilization rose from 20% to 36% if a clown was brought in to entertain and relax her immediately after the obstetrician implanted a fertilized egg. Another study found that if there was a clown in the room, children with urinary tract infections didn't need sedation to keep still during an imaging scan. One Israeli university offers a full-time degree program for medical clowning. In an Israeli examination room, a clown sat down next to a wailing child with a needle in his arm. The clown inflated a white medical latex glove into a makeshift balloon animal. The boy's shrieks turned into giggles.