Courtesy of St. Louis Children's Hospital
St. Louis Children's Hospital patient Evan holding his Stormtrooper-painted radiation mask
Last week, Black Panther himself gave a shout-out to an 11-year-old patient at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
The patient, William, is being treated for a brain tumor at the hospital's Siteman Kids. He receives proton beam therapy daily as part of his treatment, which involves wearing a custom white mask over his face that pinpoints exactly where the proton radiation hits the tumor.
Wearing the mask and staying still can be uncomfortable, scary even, for the kids who undergo the treatment.
To help William feel more empowered, a child life specialist at the hospital, Hannah Heimos, painted his mask as his favorite character, the Black Panther. Children's then shared a snap of William donning the mask—as a message specifically for the actor who portrays the Marvel superhero, Chadwick Boseman.
("We tried to get a picture of William holding his mask...but he was too excited and insisted on wearing it," the hospital tweeted as a side note.)
Boseman responded just a few hours later.
"He was so excited when he found out the Black Panther reached out to him," Heimos says. "He was jumping out of joy. He didn't want to put the mask down."
This isn't the first time Heimos, who's been at the hospital almost four years, has painted masks for proton beam therapy patients. After reading about other treatment facilities that practice it, she decided to start her own program in January.
Since then, she says it's taken off. She's painted around 10 so far, including ones that sport Batman, a dolphin, Wolverine, Captain America, and Mufasa from The Lion King. A Stormtrooper mask Heimos made for an 8-year-old patient named Evan was featured on Good Morning America. Two employees from Children's even donned Stormtrooper costumes to escort Evan to his treatment.
"They have to wear these masks to stabilize them during their treatments," Heimos says. "I'm only able to paint masks for the patients who are awake for their treatments. It decreases anxiety." She adds, "By the second day [of therapy] with their mask, they're more excited to be there."
It's also about creating empowerment for the children, she says, and giving the young patients a bit of choice, a say when it comes to their cancer care. Heimos has received funding for her program, and she's gotten many more requests for heroic masks.
"I'm so passionate about this," she says, "and I'm so happy to see other people feel the same way."
