With great power comes a great bedside manner — meet Dr Spider-Man
Once a month, George Mann mutates into Spider-Man but he admits he’s not totally cut out for the role of a web-spinning super hero.
“I used to have nightmares of falling off tall buildings as a kid, and even now to this day, I am scared of heights,” he tells AusDoc.
But the third year med student has been visiting children at the nearby Townsville University Hospital in Queensland to bring some positivity to what can be a difficult, sometimes traumatic experience.
“Hospitals are scary places and very intimidating when you are a kid, and I would hate for them to then fester that hate towards receiving medical care and end up being reluctant to seek out help,” he says.
It is his work moonlighting as ‘Dr Spider-Man’ that has secured him a place as a finalist in Australia’s Kindest Person Award.
As you probably suspect, Mr Mann has been obsessed with comic culture since childhood.
He says he was originally gifted a Spider-Man mask by his sister for Christmas. But it took 10 phone calls before he got a ‘yes’ from the hospital to do the visits. They should have known that super heroes do not give up.
“I think it was just that they were trying to gently push me away without being rude. It’s probably a bit weird to receive that phone call and they don’t really know what to do.”
Mr Mann admits his first costume was maybe a little too “menacing” to some children — but he has now been given two tailor-made $1,500 Spider-Man suits to ensure he looks the real deal.
Initially the 20-year-old used funds from his side gig — digital art — to buy toys.
“As soon as I pull out a Barbie doll or a Transformer, that’s when the smile starts lighting up on the children’s faces,” he says.
But he then set up a fundraising page, which has so far raised around $18,000.
Those funds have been a huge help, allowing him to give up his part-time job to concentrate on the hospital visits. Last week, Dr Spider-Man became a registered charity.
“The best story I’ve probably got is when a parent pulled me aside at the end of my visit and said, ‘Oh, my son came out of surgery three days ago, and this is the first time he smiled since.’
“It’s the little things like that that keep me going.”
Australia’s Kindest Person Award will be announced in November.
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