OMAHA, Neb. — A 6-year-old boy in Nebraska has become an expert at putting smiles on the faces of his parents' acupuncture patients.
Sully Nyehuis' morning starts with him picking out his scrubs as that's the uniform at work. His parents own an acupuncture clinic and he has been a part of the team for a while now.
During the pandemic, his parents decided to home-school him, so he now has his own office at work.
"When the patient walks in, it's my job to see if they need to eat, drink or go to the bathroom, then take them back to Room X and tell them a joke,” Sully said.
Sully realized that most patients were hurting or nervous before their appointment.
"When [grandma] puts needles in her feet, she gets nervous and that's why I get to tell her jokes,” Sully said.
Sully said making people smile makes them brave.
"When I came in for acupuncture, I was in pain, tons of pain, and coming in and smiling makes you not think about it,” said patient Carissa Roberts. “It kind of takes it away a little bit and it just changes your demeanor. It changes your perspective of what you're dealing with right then and there."
A child recently came in with his mother and was nervous to leave her side, so Sully came to the rescue with a card.
"The little boy with curly hair, I just made him a card and then he started to be brave and he started to play with me,” Sully said.
"I went and I had his business cards made with 'laugh coordinator' on it, and we do research to find new jokes all the time. He takes his job very seriously,” said Sully’s mom, Chalee.
Sully's job of making people smile doesn't just stop at the office.
"Before COVID, we used to go to elderly homes and we would sing,” Chalee said. “He would always be my mic checker, so he would get up there first and sing his songs."
"To be that compassionate at such a young age, especially lately when it seems like a lot of humanity has forgotten how to be compassionate and how to be caring towards others, even when you just met them,” said Sully’s dad, Cory.
Sully is a reminder to us all to be kind and try to make others smile. It was something Sully started all on his own and now certain patients request to see the little doctor before their treatments.
This story was originally published by Arianna Martinez at KMTV.
