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Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks works on carving a patient's cast in the operating room. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off her cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks carves a cardinal into a patient's cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
Halen, a patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks, gives his thumbs up after seeing his carved cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off a T-Rex cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows a Minecraft carving on a cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off her cast with a pink bow. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off a carving in a cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks works on carving a patient's cast in the operating room. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off her cast with a pink bow. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off a carving in a cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Going under the knife for a procedure can be intimidating for anyone, but especially daunting for kids.
One doctor with Norton Children's Orthopedics of Louisville is helping ease that fear by carving unique designs into her patient's casts.
Dr. Laura Jacks has been an orthopedic surgeon for 21 years. She says she's carved likely "over a thousand" casts in her career.
Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks carves a cardinal into a patient's cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
"You have to wait just the right amount of time. You want the cast to be a little hard, not totally hard, but a semi-set stage," said Jacks.
In order to carve the designs, Jacks says she first places whatever color the design is meant to be underneath. Then she lets that set before going back over with an outer layer in a different color.
Once the outer layer is starting to dry, she is able to carve a shape, peal the top layer back, and reveal the design underneath. Then, she'll finish the artwork with smaller details made with a sharpie.
"Every now and then someone comes in with a challenge that's very fun," said Jacks.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off her cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
Before she was able to master the carving process, she started with bows.
"I was in an operating room and I put a cast on a little baby, and we were just putting white casts on back then. The anesthesiologist reached over and drew a little bow on the belly of the cast and I thought, 'I could do better than that.' I made a bow out of the fiberglass that the cast is made out of and put that on the cast," said Jacks.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off a T-Rex cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
The doctor says she started designing the casts in order to help make medical procedures less scary for children.
"You can just see sometimes the kid starts to melt. Their lip starts coming out and their eyes start watering, and they're trying to hold it in and be tough," said Jacks. "Kids are very uneasy when there's a major surgery coming, or even a minor surgery, they don't like the idea. Nobody wants to have surgery so I think it's really a positive thing that I can relax them a little bit and give them something to look forward to about the surgery."
Jacks says she typically shows her patients photos of past designs to help them choose, but sometimes they'll come up with designs of their own.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows a Minecraft carving on a cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
One of her favorites was when a 6-year-old patient drew his favorite Minecraft character on a paper towel and asked her to recreate the drawing on his cast.
Halen, a 9-year-old boy from Columbia, Kentucky told Jacks he wanted to incorporate three different elements into his cast: blue for his favorite color, green for the Seattle Seahawks and a red cardinal for UofL.
Jacks joked that she had to give him "special permission" to have the color blue on the same cast with a red cardinal.
"This was the first major hospital experience so we've been nervous about it but seeing how excited he was and that he was okay with it, it definitely made us a lot more calm and comfortable because he wasn't freaking out," said Halen's stepmother JaCinda Warner.
Halen, a patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks, gives his thumbs up after seeing his carved cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
"We're just really grateful and appreciative because she didn't have to do this. She could've thrown a cast on it and sent us on our way. It's really great that she cares about her patients that way, to go that extra step," said Warner.
"It makes them feel like a rock star in the classroom," said Jacks. "They get to get attention. Everybody wants to have their cast sign but it is funny sometimes when I do a decoration on a cast they don't let anybody sign it."
Jacks says sometimes her work has even been noticed by total strangers.
"They come back with positive reports. People walk up to them in the grocery store and say, 'Did Dr. Jacks do your cast?" said the doctor.
Since she only gets a small amount of time to create each work, Jacks says she has to remind herself not to be too hard on herself for what the design of the final product looks like.
A patient of Norton Children's Orthopedics surgeon Dr. Laura Jacks shows off a T-Rex cast. Image courtesy Norton Children's Hospital.
"Sometimes when I'm finished with a design in the operating room, I'm not that impressed with it. I feel I could have done a little better like, 'Oh, this could've been a little over there. But, they love it,'" said Jacks. "To them, it's their unique thing, and they love it."
Over the years, some people Jacks has trained have started to incorporate the practice into their own careers. She says she's happy that the method has spread to help other kids' pain turn into something positive.
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