Monday afternoon, the Washington Capitals made their annual visit to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to bring smiles to patients’ faces. Except when Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov met cancer survivor Brock Ludwigson, it was Brock who brought all the laughs.
Let me set the scene. The Caps Russians spent their time in Georgetown, participating in a Flashes Of Hope photoshoot with patients and their families. To lighten the mood, Evgeny Kuznetsov brought a whoopee cushion. Every time a new child would walk into the room for a photo, the second-line center would slide the faux farting device into place, a loud fart would be let out, and laughs would be had by all.
When four-year-old Brock Ludwigson entered the room, Kuznetsov’s plan went awry. For context, the tiny Caps fan, who was diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis at the age of one, spent much of his early life battling 17 tumors that had grown inside his bones. Brock underwent chemotherapy until he was two-and-a-half years-old and is now in remission. He has an energy that is unmatched. He lights up any room he walks into.
Brock ended up taking Kuznetsov’s whoopee cushion — because who’s going to say no to this dude — and by the end of the Capitals’ hospital visit, the tyke had adorably terrorized several members of the team.
We have the video.
Video: Cara Bahniuk
Brock was first greeted by Alex Ovechkin, who repeatedly jabbed him with a foam finger.
When a giggling Brock was finally calm enough to sit down, he noticed Kuznetsov was holding a whoopee cushion. Ovechkin showed Brock how the whoopee cushion worked by placing it on his thigh and pressing down on it with his hand. When the loud fart occurred, an excited Brock, wearing a tiny Ovechkin jersey, said “let me try, let me try” and basically took the toy from the three-time MVP. The fun seemingly came to an end after Brock jumped on the cushion too hard and it popped.
But first a selfie.
Ah, yes. This is perfect.
Now back to the whoopee cushion. Don’t worry. A little masking tape fixed that cushion right up and Brock was off to wreck havoc on the remaining Capitals players in the arts room.
Brock’s fun started with Aaron Ness and Philipp Grubauer. After squeezing the cushion several times with his hands, Brock got giggles out of the players when slammed the side of his face into the device and got a farting noise.
Ness then convinced Brock to surprise attack Grubauer.
Later the whoopee cushion ended up in the hands of two very serious Swedes, Andre Burakovsky and Nicklas Backstrom.
Burakovsky tried it out, and well, you need to see these laughs in GIF form.
When Brock squeezed the cushion into Burakovsky’s face a bit later, he exclaimed “oh, that STINKS” while covering his nose with his jersey.
Apparently all it takes is a whoopee cushion and the fun never stops.
Photos: Paula Ludwigson
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