Murals brighten

up pediatric room

in new hospital

by Teresa Eubanks, CLJNews.com

BLOUNTSTOWN, FL – The hallway in the new Calhoun Liberty Hospital have been lined with recently purchased office furniture, updated patient beds with an array of touch button settings and large pieces of new medical equipment still being unpacked as final preparations are being made to open to the public.

But one low-tech feature stands out among all the new equipment going in – a mural that brightens up the pediatric exam room.

“I want to make people smile on a bad day,” said the artist, Maja Haupt, of Hosford.

Youngsters brought there probably won’t notice the octoscope, medical vacuum and oxygen equipment hanging nearby on the wall. When they sit on the exam table, their attention will be drawn to the facing wall which features a wide-eyed alligator with a cast on his leg, leaning on a crutch.

On the opposite wall, a medical team of two manatees – a nurse holding a clipboard and a doctor with a stethoscope – greet a sad catfish who is swimming in to have a hook removed from his lip. She chose to use manatees as the medical staff because, “they’re sweet animals and not scary.”

A third image was recently completed and features a buck-toothed little beaver with a bandaid on his tail.

The images are painted in cool soothing tones of gray, green and purple. “I hope the murals bring joy to babies and kids,” said Maja, who also a nurse and understands the stress families face when a loved one – particularly a child – has to be hospitalized.

She has been painting since she was a youngster. “My family has always been super supportive,” she said. Her late grandparents, Virgil and Fran Mayo, “recognized my love for art and took me to art lessons.” She added that she “ grew up in the lap of my grandmother Erline Sumner painting.”

Maja painted her first mural at the age of 19 in the nursery of the First Baptist Church. She later moved away, living in California for 20 years before returning to her hometown, where she has resumed painting murals when she has time off from her work as a nurse.

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THURSDAY, JULY 31

•GRAND OPENING of the new

Calhoun Liberty Hospital

– Ribbon-cutting at 9 a.m. CT

followed by tours of the new hospital.

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