Will and Recon: An emergency response team for the soul

A former firefighter/paramedic, Will Hall is AdventHealth’s EMS liaison and has seen firsthand how emotionally difficult it can be working in an emergency room. He decided he wanted to help those ER doctors, nurses and other clinical team members who care for people who come in suffering from everything from heart attacks and strokes to broken bones.

“A lot of those calls are pretty stressful, so if I can bring in a dog that helps de-stress that situation, that's actually very valuable to the staff,” Hall told WESH-TV.

Will adopted a shelter dog that he named Recon and the pair went through pet therapy training so Recon could be certified to work for AdventHealth.

Now Will and Recon make regular trips to emergency rooms throughout Central Florida to help team members decompress and work through the emotional stresses of their work. They can also respond within an hour if an ER team has a particularly tough case.

You could call Will and Recon an emergency response team for the soul.

Click the video above to experience what a visit to the ER is like for them. And to learn more about AdventHealth’s pet therapy program, click here.