PARIS -- Rudy, a baby bottle dangling from his lips, refuses to see the doctor. Instead, he wants to prance before the sun and pat the smiling gray mouse painted on the waiting room wall.
Parents and doctors say the colorful murals at the Robert Debre Children's Hospital in Paris add joy to an otherwise grim environment and help ease the anxiety of the young patients and their families.It's all thanks to Paint A Smile, a private charity that has already decorated hospitals in Italy, Russia, Belarus and plans to paint others in Spain, Britain, Switzerland and elsewhere.
Like comic book characters off on an adventure, the brightly colored mice, carrots, mushrooms, lady bugs and elves lead a gay life of their own -- dancing, hiking, fishing, swimming, swinging from clouds and even putting out fires.
"These murals stimulate the child's imagination, enabling him to create his own stories," said Diane Purper, a child psychiatrist working at Robert Debre.
Purper noted that sick children often lack the physical energy and confidence to play by themselves but are easily distracted and entertained.
"The murals are a way for kids to push aside the pain of their hospital experience," she said. "I've seen many children actually stop crying the moment a parent points out a figure on the wall."
Paint a Smile is the brainchild of Laura Cotton, a 33-year-old British artist who decorated the Pediatric Hospital for Chernobyl Children in Minsk, Belarus, in 1997. She also decorated Moscow's Children's Hospital, and recently completed the Vatican's Children's Hospital in Rome.
Cotton said at a news conference Tuesday in Paris that her motivation to brighten the lives of sick children has been fueled by personal tragedy.
Fourteen years ago, she and her sister, then 21, were in a car accident. Though seriously injured, she survived. Her sister died.
"My last memory of her is being carried off on a stretcher, surrounded by doctors, down a long, white corridor," Cotton said in an interview. "I would have preferred an image of her with color."
Cotton, who oversaw a team of six artists, said the murals at Robert Debre cost $40,000 and were funded by an anonymous donor from Liechtenstein.
The drawings have been conceived to fit the specific needs of seriously ill children, many of them bedridden. Rooms outfitted with CAT scans and magnetic resonance imaging systems have ceiling murals, while play areas on wards and outpatient waiting rooms feature drawings at a child's eye level.
Some designs incorporate such ordinary objects as fire extinguishers and temperature monitors.
"We make them our friends, not our enemies," Cotton said. "We make them part of the cure."
With their humor and whimsy, the murals also help diminish stress experienced by the parents of sick children.
Claus Drexel said he spent the morning playing with his 3-month old daughter, Caroline, hospitalized since birth with a life-threatening intestinal disorder.
"The murals add a touch of joy to a pretty depressing environment," Drexel said, rocking the baby, who is scheduled for surgery next year.
"You can't imagine what it was like spending hours here every day before they were painted.