Gold medalist visits UCLA hospital

Ben Ostertag, a pediatric patient at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, asked Olympic gold medalist Jason Lezak, “Are you going to win another gold medal?”

“I have to wait four more years,” Lezak replied, holding up his medal to show him.

Lezak visited pediatric patients in Westwood on Sept. 15 at the hospital, bringing a smile to the faces of the children and parents that he visited.

Lezak, who led the men’s swimming 4×100 relay team to victory in the Beijing Games, said it was his second time visiting kids in a hospital.

He walked from one patient’s room to the next, displaying the medal and posing for a photograph with each child.

Many of the children were ready with questions and comments for Lezak. Though some were shy at first, most of them warmed up to the idea of having an Olympic athlete in their midst.

“Feel how heavy (the medal) is,” Lezak told one patient.

Amy Ostertag, Ben’s mother, said she and her son watched Lezak swim in the Olympics on television often while Ben wasn’t feeling well in recent months.

“He really wasn’t feeling well and it was fun for him to have something to cheer for,” she said. “It’s a bright spot in our day.”

Since the games ended, Lezak has spent most of his time attending press functions including local and national television and radio appearances and elementary school visits, he said.

“I get a little break before I begin training for the next Olympic Games,” he said. “These kids aren’t feeling well, and if I can cheer up his day even a little bit I want to.”

And the meet and greet certainly did bring many smiles, not only to the children patients and their parents, but to the nurses and doctors who also got to meet Lezak.

A few members of the hospital staff also got to pose with Lezak.

Lezak was asked to visit the hospital because when the pediatric patients receive visitors ““ and especially Olympian visitors ““ it allows them to forget the pain that they may be going through, said Dr. Edward R.B. McCabe, physician-in-chief of the children’s hospital.

“They can just be kids and forget where they are,” McCabe said.

Some of the patients were allowed to touch Lezak’s medal, which is heavier than it looks and is made partially of jade, Lezak said.

Lezak also visited the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital earlier in the day.

He was given the opportunity to visit the hospitals because of his friendship with Dr. Tad Kremen, a resident physician of orthopedic surgery at UCLA Medical Center.

Kremen and Lezak swam with each other at UC Santa Barbara, Kremen said.

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