Doc performs rare boy/stuffed bear surgery

Here’s your daily dose of sweetness:

Jackson McKie, 8, of Prince Edward Island, was having some surgery last week to replace a shunt as part of his treatment for hydrocephalus. So he had his stuffed animal along because you know how 8-year-olds are about having an operation, right?

“It’s his best buddy,” his father, Rick McKie, tells the CBC. The bear was given to the family when they went to get an ultrasound to find out the sex of their baby who turned out to be Jackson.

The bear had its own woes; it had a torn underarm.

So Halifax pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. P. Daniel McNeely operated on the bear too.

“There’s always a few stitches that are left over from the case itself and they normally get disposed of,” said McNeely.

The kid got his shunt. The bear got his arm. And McNeely got to use Twitter for the first time.

It’s not what I was looking for,” McNeely said of the online reaction. “I just thought I might make some people smile somewhere.”