Cancer Patients Get a Laugh and Boost in Hospital Program

Doctors are not the only ones issuing prescriptions for cancer patients at Presbyterian Hospital. The patients themselves can order up a dose of Dangerfield, or a Marx Brothers booster, from the Laugh Mobile.

“It’s a real pick-me-up,” said Wanda Mooers, who has been battling cancer of the lymph nodes for more than 14 months. “You can pick out things--even Play-Doh and crayons--to take your mind off your problems.”

Every Monday and Friday, volunteers wheel the 5-foot-tall yellow cart around Presbyterian’s seventh-floor cancer unit. It holds about 35 videotapes, ranging from “National Lampoon’s Animal House” to “The Three Stooges” to TV sitcoms and performances by comedians such as Rodney Dangerfield, as well as humorous books and audiotapes and games--even Slinky toys.

“I look forward to it,” said Mooers, the mother of two young sons. “When you’re going through chemotherapy and radiation, you need to put yourself in a good state of mind, which is sometimes difficult to do.”

“It gives them some diversion while they’re in the hospital,” said Sherry Bargoil, cancer control program coordinator. “Medically speaking, we know there is some mind-body connection.”

In his book, “Anatomy of An Illness,” Norman Cousins wrote: “Even if we find that laughter produces no specific biochemical changes, it does accomplish one very essential purpose: It tends to help a person cope with apprehension and even panic that all too frequently accompany serious illness.”

Hospital officials got the idea after talking with patients, Bargoil said. “Some of our younger leukemia patients who were staying with us for long periods began bringing in their own VCRs and renting tapes. We began to think, ‘Why can’t we do something like this?’ ”