Young patients get special Halloween

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Children stuck in the hospital at Johns Hopkins All Children's, didn't have to miss out on Halloween. 

On Monday staff and volunteers brought the fun of Halloween to them.

They call it reverse trick-or-treating. Hospital staff go door to door giving out candy and spreading smiles.

The kids were able to change from their hospital gowns into their favorite costumes thanks to donations.

Many parents say the stress of their child's illness is usually heightened during holidays, when kids get upset about missing out on the fun.

"I was hoping we'd be home by today, so I was holding back on telling my kids they weren't going to get to go trick-or-treating this year, but I'm really happy that this kind of lightens the blow," said Brody Clark.

Because healthy siblings were invited to participate in All Children's trick-or-treat too, families could celebrate together. 

"I asked them if they wanted to go door to door with the other kids or if they wanted to come here and trick or treat with her and they chose to come here," Viola Peterson said through tears.

Even the hospital's therapy dogs got in on the fun, spreading the Halloween spirit and boosting the spirits of sick kids and their families.

"Seeing your kid laying there sick and not knowing what's wrong, we currently have an unknown diagnosis, this is a great distraction while we're still in the testing process and figuring out how to treat him so just seeing him smile, upbeat melts my heart," said Alyne Santos-Aca, who said getting to pick out his own costume in the hospital's costume "shop" gave her son a sense of normalcy in between treatments.

All Children's also holds a Christmas celebration for families staying in the hospital over the holidays, to donate toys for patients visit https://www.hopkinsallchildrens.org/foundation/ways-to-give/donate-toys