WATCH: The Wiggles Record Special Video for Covid Patient With Down Syndrome So She Wouldn’t Be Scared of Oxygen Treatment

Sarah RumpfAug 22nd, 2021, 9:53 pm
 

A nurse in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia and an internationally-popular children’s music group teamed up to help a very special Covid patient, and a heartwarming video sharing their story is going viral on social media.

Sarah Kelly, a 22-year-old young woman with Down Syndrome, was hospitalized with Covid-19. She was having trouble breathing, but she was scared of the “nasal prongs,” a type of mask that was needed to give her supplemental oxygen.

“That’s what we needed, for her to stay alive,” intensive care nurse Steven Moylan told Melbourne’s 10 News First. Worried about his patient’s health going downhill, he had an idea.

Kelly was “absolutely obsessed” with The Wiggles, Moylan said, and had shown him videos saved on her iPad. He reached out to the group and they agreed to help.

“As Wiggles, we were more than happy to take that on board and do whatever we can,” said Simon Pryce, affectionately known to children around the world as the “Red Wiggle.”

In the short video they created, Pryce can be seen wearing a white doctor’s coat along with his bandmate, “Blue Wiggle” Anthony Field, as they smile and sing a short message for Kelly. Field wears the same type of mask Kelly’s doctors were recommending for her — “It just helps me breathe so beautifully!” he says — and he’s also seen having his oxygen saturation levels tested with a finger monitor.

The video was a success. Moylan showed it to Kelly, it reassured her, and she allowed him to put the nasal prongs on her.

Kelly had spent a month in the hospital, said 10 News reporter Natalie Yoannidis, but had recovered enough to be discharged “in the coming days.”

Pryce had high words of praise for Moylan for fighting so hard for Kelly and his other patients. “He’s been in ICU and battling Covid for the last 18 months, and yet he was still able to think outside the square and take someone’s personal circumstances into account.”

So far, the video of Kelly’s story has been viewed over one-and-a-half-million times on Twitter alone, with many people — including Yoannidis, the reporter who first covered the story — commenting that it was much needed good news.

Watch the video above, via 10 News First Melbourne.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.