Therapy dog is face of healing kits School of Medicine student Caroline Benzel makes for front-line workers.
When the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt last spring to Caroline Benzel’s hospital visits with her therapy dog Loki, the University of Maryland School of Medicine student unleashed her energy and compassion into helping front-line workers in a different way.
Benzel and her 3-year-old Rottweiler, affectionately nicknamed “Dogtor” Loki, took to FaceTime and Skype to continue virtual therapy sessions with health care workers at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), some of whom were working with patients fighting the coronavirus.
Benzel noticed during the sessions the “wear and tear” that personal protection equipment was causing, such as facial bruising. So she started Dogtor Loki’s Hero Healing Kits, distributing much-needed supplies such as lotion, powder, Vaseline, lip balm, instant coffee, and tea to front-line workers.
“We try to include items that we think are not only helpful and functional but also could be easily kept on a person when they are working,” she said.
She said that as of early this year, she had distributed more than 7,000 kits to Maryland hospitals, police departments (including the UMB Police Department), and fire stations, and that her work has inspired others in eight states. The efforts by people across the nation have raised more than $100,000.
Loki is the face of the campaign and has become a bit of a “cult hero” with her own Instagram and Facebook accounts and about 20,000 combined followers (dogtor.loki). The kits include a photo of Loki in her doctor’s coat and feature a heartfelt thank you to the front-line workers: “Your job isn’t always easy, but just know you are incredible and caring and compassionate and selfless. Thank you for being our hero.”
You can read more about Loki and Benzel at CATALYST magazine.
You can read the Spring 2021 issue of CATALYST magazine, which features stories on UMB students preparing and administering COVID-19 vaccines at the UMB vaccination clinic at the SMC Campus Center; research related to COVID-19 across all of our schools; features on the first recipient of The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings ’76 Scholarship Endowment, the Healing Youth Alliance, comedian-actor-doctor Ken Jeong, and much more at CATALYST magazine.