2 y/o has his bunny back, thanks to Kaiser Permanente San Mateo

Nathan Ho, 2, is sleeping much better now that his longest friend, a well-loved stuffed bunny named “Bun-Bun”, is back home with him.

Nathan’s bunny had been left in an elevator at the Kaiser Permanente San Mateo Medical Office, and Adult Primary Care Manager Robert Douglass worked hard to find the missing bunny’s owner. Douglass could tell the worn stuffed animal was well loved and was determined to find its owner.

Nathan’s parents Tien Ho and Honglian Yu, who live in San Mateo, had been at the Kaiser Permanente medical office with Nathan in late December, where he apparently dropped the stuffed rabbit. Once they got home, Nathan was upset and his mother realized his stuffed animal was missing.

“I was thinking about going back to try to find the bunny,” Yu said. “But with the pandemic I was afraid to go out again.”

Nathan had trouble sleeping without his bunny, his dad said.

“He would look around the room as if hoping to see “Bun-Bun” someplace,” Ho said.

“Bun-Bun” was found in the elevator by a Kaiser Permanente patient who brought it to Douglass. Douglass took a photo of it and sent the picture and a note around the building. But nobody responded, so he placed the rabbit on the security desk in the lobby in case someone came back for it.

"As the days turned into a couple weeks and the bunny was still sitting there, I began to think about my kids and how important their little stuffed friends were to them," Douglass said. "I didn't like knowing there may be a kid out there missing his or her friend."

Using Kaiser Permanente’s robust medical record system, Douglass was able to obtain a telephone list of young patients who were seen at the medical office the day the stuffed bunny was found. On his tenth call, he connected with Nathan’s mother.

“I was ecstatic when he called,” Yu said. “I told Robert how important the bunny was to Nathan.”

Plans were made to get the bunny to Nathan. Douglass put together a gift basket, which included a blanket, a book, and another stuffed rabbit “friend” to carry “Bun-Bun” back to Nathan. He included a letter to Nathan, describing the lost rabbit’s adventures while he was away from home. On a rainy day, he delivered the missing “Bun-Bun” to Nathan’s family.

“Nathan immediately went to the long-lost stuffed pet and started embracing it,” his mom said. “He was so happy.”

His family was grateful to everyone who helped to reunite Nathan with his “Bun-Bun”.

Said Nathan’s dad: “This is so heartwarming that people we don’t even know went to all this trouble to get my son’s stuffed toy back to him.”