Cat-loving teen with cancer gets a "cat immersion" tent at hospital

I've been spending rather a lot of time in the cancer ward at a hospital lately, and I think this is a fabulous idea: a "cat immersion tent."

The teen girl in this video, Maga, is a cancer patient at Seattle Children's Hospital. She loves her cat—actually, she loves all cats— and has had to be isolated in the hospital with no cat contact, for health reasons. "During her stays what she misses most is her own cat Merry," the Seattle Children's Hospital folks say.

We asked our Facebook fans to share their favorite cat photos with us, and got an awesome response -- 3,000+ photos! We used these pictures to create this "cat immersion" for Maga -- an audio/visual experience to bring thousands of "virtual" cats to Maga's room.

More of the photos they received on this Facebook page. This is the same hospital that produced the viral "Stronger" video. Sounds like a really cool environment for pediatric cancer patients.

More at Laughing Squid.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: cancer • cats • Kids • pets • video

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http://www.facebook.com/justin.sabe Justin Sabe

Back when I was producing purrcast (the all cat purring podcast) we made a CD of it for a friend who was in the hospital and on pain medication that keept her pretty incoherent. It did a good job of keeping her calm and meditative instead of just strung out. I should find the files and send a copy out to Seattle Children’s Hospital and get the site back up to active status.
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  That’s spectacular.
- Shibi_SF
  
  For our friend who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis, and was isolated in the hospital and unable to cuddle his cat, my sister and I went to Build-A-Bear and created a look-a-like kitty for him. Justin Sabe’s purrcast CD would have been perrrrfect accompaniment!
http://twitter.com/jradiesq Analog Computing

I wish there were a new label for things like this. Something like “NSFW” but that essentially meant “Not Safe If You Don’t Want to Cry in Public.”

It was very touching to say the least.
- Mr. Son
  
  I used to see the phrase “kleenex warning” sometimes on fanfiction years ago when the story was very sappy and/or sad. That should totally make a comeback.
missamo80

KIRO did a segment on this Tuesday afternoon, you can hear about it (and about the larger art program at the hospital) here: http://www.kiroradio.com/listen/9944860/.
Teller

Great, great idea and execution.
Halloween_Jack

If I had to be a cancer inpatient, I’d want my tent to have pictures taken by Curiosity. “Fuck you, cancer, I’m on Mars.”
destroy_all_humans

talk about using a weapon of mass destruction on cancer’s ass! Get better soon Maga.
tubacat

Now that’s a wonderful thing!
Forrest Hsu

Seattle’s pretty awesome. I am proud Seattlite.