Pokemon Go, which is earning huge criticism from around the world due to its playing patterns which  let players digitally catch and train Pokemon in real life. The game has caused several accidents since it has launched two weeks ago, but for the many children at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Pokemon Go has been a blessing, helping kids to cope with the pain, struggle and fear of a hospital stay.

The Azcentral reported, Noah Esquivel, a 10 years old boy who just had brain surgery the summer before sixth grade explained how this stay is different from the others. “The first time I was here, that was one of the most scariest times of my life and so I felt like, ‘Is this how I’m gonna be forever?’ ” he said.

“I was just feeling like I was doing nothing and I was being so boring and I was afraid I couldn’t do anything.” “But now this time, with the Pokemon Go, it’s actually kind of helped me learn to be myself again,” said Noah, who had the surgery July 13.

“It feels like I’m more alive than I was other” hospital stays, Noah said. “I used to be get-up-and-go Noah, and here I can feel like I’m doing that again.”

According to Noah, the best part about Pokemon Go is getting to go on nighttime walks with his mom and dad. Sometimes he walks and sometimes he uses a wheelchair or walker, but regardless, “the best part about it is the bonding."

“We can be out and about, we don’t have to be cooped up and just like a chicken coop,” he said.

His mother, Stephanie Esquivel, said that, “I see a light in his eyes that sometimes is not there with all of the pressure and stress of sickness and everything else, and he gets to be a little boy instead of being scared.”

“It’s so much fun for him when there is a lure because he doesn’t have to go as far,” Stephanie said.

Julie Rhein of the hospital staff, whose job at PCH is to help kids cope with being in the hospital, said that, “Pokemon Go has been a really nice addition to our tool kit.”

The game is another way to get kids to meet their medical goals. For example, a short trip to a Pokestop is a way to encourage kids to walk after surgery.

“I have heard nothing negative from any of our medical staff,” she said.

“During that procedure, he taught me how to play and talked me through all the different things, and he was so distracted at the end he goes, ‘Julie, that’s the best ultrasound I’ve ever had,’ ” Rhein said.

“We normally do distraction and conversation and all those things, but there’s this kind of team camaraderie around Pokemon Go that’s just been really beautiful to see."

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Nandini