NORFOLK — Teddy needed a checkup, so Elaina Varga took him to the zoo. Dr. Anna Lepore, an OBGYN at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, helped Teddy onto a scale and helped 7-year-old Elaina measure the toy bear’s length and weight.
Elaina is one of the many children who arrived at the Virginia Zoo on Saturday morning for the Teddy Bear Clinic, a series of check-up stations for stuffed animals. From height and weight to eyes and ears, health aspects for myriad fluffy animals were evaluated by real humans.
Doctors from the Naval hospital manned several stations for the stuffed animals: vitals; heart and lungs; eyes, ears and mouth; boo-boos and imaging; grooming; and medicine. At each table, children brought their stuffed animals for their yearly checkups, and were able to practice how visits to the physician work. Doctors showed each child how to use stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and other medical tools.
“We’re doing this because we want children to be a little bit more comfortable when they go to the doctors,” said Nick Dzendzel, communications specialist for the zoo.