Children enjoy learning from special Pal

Friday, July 5, 2002 | 3:29 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: July 6, 2002

To a kid confined to a hospital bed with little or nothing to do, the sight of an attendant pushing a big orange computer robot into the room is a sure sign that something interesting is going to fill up the next hour or two.

The Starlight Children's Foundation this week gave the University Medical Center pediatrics unit one of the nation's first "PC Pal" mobile personal computers for hospitalized children.

At least 10 kids each got an hour and a half to play the games and use the Internet services provided by the computer, which resembles a robot and was designed last December at the University of Chicago Children's Hospital. Fifty have since been produced and are being installed in hospitals from New York to California.

"I had a lot of fun," said Amayra Cruz, who has been at UMC for a week for treatment of an ailment. "The game I played had a frog who was the boss of a little bug who showed him things to do. I won. But it's easy to lose if you don't make the right decision. I had to think about what to do."

That, say officials of UMC and Starlight, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children, is the key to success of the unit. It provides loads of fun while helping children keep their mental skills sharp when they are incapacitated.

"Time spent with the PC Pal allows children not to think about being sick -- it's kids doing fun stuff and just being kids," said Kara Judd-Litera, a child life specialist for UMC, whose job is to help kids cope with the loss of the the day-to-day joys of childhood that come with hospitalization.

"What attracted us to the PC Pal was its diversity, because it also helps us help the kids continue their growth and development with its educational features."

The frog-bug game that Cruz played for more than an hour actually was a point-and-click educational program, Judd-Litera said.

The computer, which costs $7,500 per unit, also gives teenage patients a tie to the outside world with the Internet and e-mail. Kids also can play arcade games and games of strategy.

PC Pal has a child-friendly desktop and colorful graphics. It comes with a Web browser that filters out inappropriate Internet sites and has word-processing and graphic design software.

Jenny Isaacson, spokeswoman of the Los Angeles-based Starlight Children's Foundation, said at other hospitals where PC Pal has been installed children have used the Internet to learn more about the illnesses that put them in the hospital.

"We had one case where a girl who was about to get a kidney transplant exchanged e-mail with a girl who had undergone a kidney transplant at another hospital," Isaacson said. "She told the girl who was going to have the operation about her progress, and that made her less scared.

"Keeping a line of communications with peers is very important to teenagers."

The Starlight Foundation PC Pal is similar to a Starbright Foundation computer for children that recently was installed at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. Starlight and Starbright are sister companies founded by Hollywood producer Peter Sammuelson, the brother of actress Emma Samms.

Sammuelson and Samms started the Starlight Foundation specifically to grant wishes to seriously ailing children. It has grown to fund four in-patient services and two outpatient services, including the "wishes program" that each year benefits about 2,000 sick children and their parents.

UMC has partnered in past years with Starlight for its Nintendo game fun center in-patient program for children, another bedside mobile entertainment unit that helps break up the monotony of a hospital stay.

Diane Cueva, a spokeswoman for Colgate-Palmolive, Co. one of the sponsors of Starlight's hospital programs, said her company's financing of projects like PC Pal is paid back with dividends in the smiles the devices bring to the children's faces.

"It's just so uplifting for these kids," Cueva said. "We see the success and we get retailers involved, like Vons, which has been with us supporting Starlight for the last six years."

But with only one unit, Judd-Litera also has to deal with the sad faces of the kids when she sends the computer to the child in the next room.

"The most asked questions have been, 'Is my turn over already?' and 'Can I play with it after lunch?' " Judd-Litera said. "We will try to get another PC Pal when one becomes available. We just consider ourselves lucky to be the first hospital in Nevada to get one."

Starlight officials estimate that the first 50 units installed this year will be used by 1,200 children per month and 14,400 per year nationwide.