Adorable Service Dog Offers Relief to Stressed-Out Medical Staff on Front Line of Virus Outbreak

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When the stress of the unfolding pandemic got too much for the doctors and nurses of one Colorado hospital, a cuddly canine companion was on hand to help ease the pressure.

Dr. Susan Ryan, an ER physician at Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, has a special tool in her arsenal for battling the virus outbreak; her 1-year-old Labrador retriever, Wynn, has been accompanying her to work every day since mid-March 2020 to provide much-needed respite for the whole staff body.

“She has the ability to really calm people down,” Ryan explained, ABC News reported. “We’re working in a unique time and she helps us stay grounded.”

Wynn is a service dog in training for the nationwide initiative Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to people with disabilities, free of charge. Ryan is a board member and has been training service dogs for years; she has been Wynn’s guardian since the puppy was just eight weeks old.

For the time being, Wynn is preparing for life as a fully fledged service dog by accompanying exhausted staff members of Rose Medical Center for “one-minute meditations.” The brief mindfulness exercises, enjoyed under dimmed lights with calming music in the background, provide staff with an opportunity to recharge in between shifts in the intensive care unit.

Revealing that the medical team had been “very stressed” and were “sometimes too busy to be scared” since the outbreak began, Ryan explained that it had quickly become imperative to come up with a way to manage collective anxieties.

Not only is Wynn providing comfort to staff at Denver’s Rose Medical Center, but one heartwarming photo of Wynn cuddling with her trainer has gone viral, bringing comfort to netizens everywhere.

Ryan submitted a photo to social media dog bloggers The Dogist on Instagram. “I saw Wynn coming back in from being walked outside,” Ryan later explained to CNN. “I just slumped down on the floor and said, ‘Can I just have a minute with her?’”

To date, Ryan’s sweet picture has over 203,000 likes and counting.

“Seeing stuff and hearing stuff that you can’t unsee has an impact on you,” the emergency physician said. “That’s where the dogs come in. When you are in the presence of the dog and petting them you are taking a moment to ground yourself at that present time.”

According to the World Health Organization, front line healthcare workers are especially vulnerable to mental health challenges during the outbreak and may need support interventions. Wynn is offering the staff of Denver’s Rose Medical Center the opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive.

After sharing photos of herself, Wynn, and her colleagues on social media, Dr. Susan Ryan started receiving messages from netizens worldwide, explaining how moved they were. “I didn’t really think about my own privacy or Wynn’s,” Ryan told KDVR. “I just thought, ‘This is touching people and they’re really having a hard time right now.’”

While the human heroes on the front lines of the pandemic battle on, Wynn, Denver’s four-legged hero, is delivering mental health breaks to the people who need them most.

Doctors test hospital staff with flu-like symptoms for COVID-19 at St. Barnabas hospital in the Bronx, New York City, on March 24, 2020. ©Getty Images | Misha Friedman