Camera At National Aquarium's Fish Tank Relays To Sinai Children's Hospital

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Those who care for the sick will tell you a happy, relaxed patient will heal in less time than one who is under stress.

As Mike Schuh reports, the designers of Sinai's new children's hospital took that idea to heart.

It's Antonio's second day battling asthma at the children's hospital.

He's so bored lying here, he even misses school.

"Right now, I am missing science and math," he said.

But he stumbled upon a channel that is always the same, yet always different.

"It reminds me so much of the characters from 'Finding Nemo,'" Antonio said.

"This is a live feed from the National Aquarium," nurse Debbie Mullens said.

And she loves it. The theme at the new hospital is fish.

When planning this, a designer had a brilliant idea.

"And we actually talked to the Aquarium and we got them to allow us to out a camera in their fish tank," Dr. Joe Wiley, the chairman of pediatrics at Sinai Hospital, said.

Schuh: "You have any favorites in there?"
Antonio: "Clownfish."

The hospital had a hunch that these fish would help at really stressful times.

"It just distracts you and why you're here," Mullens said.

"When you see kids come up from the elevator the first time on the unit, the doors open and they're immediately drawn to this big screen, with these beautiful fish in the background," Wiley said. "It's no longer scary. No, not at all."

"They're a success because they make me want to watch, calm down and relax," Antonio said.

You know who else benefits? The staff. They're so attached to the fish, they've named them after themselves.

"This is exactly lining up with our mission," Jack Cover, the general curator at the National Aquarium, said. "We want to be part of the community, but we also want to bring nature to people.

The aquarium is working to duplicate the view from that camera so anyone can tap into it from their computer.