This article was written by and published with permission from Child’s Play.
Luca knows his way around the inside of a hospital all too well. He was born with multiple complex medical conditions including Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. In Luca’s 13 years, he has had over 39 surgeries. Luca receives his care at Seattle Children’s and each year the family averages over 100 hospital appointments.
While Luca may have been in the hospital for an outpatient procedure earlier in the day that didn’t stop him from experiencing IGN Entertainment Live in a whole new way, thanks to technological advances like the Ohmni Bot from OhmniLabs Child’s Play can offer patients the opportunity to be front and center at gaming conventions across the country.
Sarah, Luca’s mom, loves seeing the patient gaming technology specialists walk through his hospital room door because she knows Luca is about to have some fun. “Gaming has helped Luca through difficult times even if he is in pain or unhappy. Through playing games with the Gaming Specialists he worked through the loss of ability in his right hand. Seeing him do that through gaming was awesome.”
Luca’s mom joined him as he followed the link to appear live through the OhmniBot at IGN. The Pink Carpet was all smiles as the IGN team and Child’s Play stopped for a photo op with Luca to commemorate the experience. It was onto the main stage and gaming hall for photo ops with D.Va, where we saw some of the new games hitting the market. No convention is complete without swag and Luca received a ton. While he could see it on screen it is currently en route to his home in Seattle.
While Luca’s hospital stays and visits are not always as lively as IGN Live you can be sure he is gaming to get him through his hospital stay. Luca is on a first-name basis with the Patient Gaming Technology Specialists at Seattle Children’s. Both positions were started and funded by Child’s Play from 2018 – 2022. Now more than 50 game techs hold positions across the US, Canada, Kenya, and Australia.
Child’s Play believes in the PowerOfPlay and helping change the PatientExperience. As the official charity of IGN Live the team was grateful to provide this unique experience to patients and families of our network hospital. Thank you to Jeffrey Vega for surely being the host with the most taking Luca and his mom on an incredible adventure through IGNLive.
