The Schwabing Clinic in Munich has briefly opened up a teddy bears’ hospital and invited children to take a peek behind the surgical curtain to quell their doctors-visit anxiety.

Munich opens teddy bears’ hospital

In a series of strange events a hospital in Bavaria has opened its doors to some unlikely, particularly cuddly patients and handed over the surgical knife to some nursery-age children.

For three days doctors at the Schwabing Clinic in Munich welcomed 400 children from local Kitas (nurseries). The young visitors were shown how everything in the hospital worked, from the check-up appointments to medical emergencies at the operating table. The event was an initiative by the hospital in order to help make injections, hospitals and doctors visits less scary for children. 

Children’s teddies offered x-rays and dental checks

The children brought their poorly plushies along with them, and under the watchful supervision of students studying medicine at LMU and TUM, helped them to x-ray, stitch up and operate on their fluffy friends. Dental checks were also carried out, though many of the inanimate patients were reluctant to open wide.

Since most of the children were still young, luckily none of the teddies were found to be suffering from a broken heart, a sickness which is more common in old age, when human companions have moved into teenagehood.