"I wanted to do it to repay people that did it for me," said the 13-year-old girl. "And it's fun, talking to the kids and seeing them -- and just walking in there with a big bag of toys."
The hospital's staff compromised by having her deliver the toys to their lobby.
"The girl did a nice thing," said Jackie Gauger, spokeswoman for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee.
"But the reality is most kids, when they're in the hospital these days, are really sick. So a visit by someone they don't know -- even if it's a kid who went through something similar in the past -- they don't necessarily think that's a neat thing."
Many hospitals staffs say the same.
"A lot of people -- their heart is in the right place," said Troy Pinkney-Ragsdale, director of child life at Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, N.Y.
But timing is part of the problem, she said. It's just too busy now. "This is not the only time of year," she said. "The rest of the year, we would love to accommodate them."
Her hospital had tightened its visitation policies before the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, the federal health-care privacy laws, took effect in April.
Visitors there, other than family members, are limited to one group a day; are told not to question children about their health; and are not allowed to visit if they have cold or flu symptoms.
Other children's hospitals don't allow strangers to visit patient floors, and some also have limited carolers to lobbies or common areas.
While it depends on how each hospital administration interprets the HIPAA regulations, many say that the new laws, and the potentially deadly flu season, have helped visitors understand their rules.
"It's kind of given us a leg to stand on," said Katie Lawhead, child life specialist and coordinator of community donations at the Medical College of Georgia-Children's Medical Center in Augusta, Ga.
Even so, hospital staffs are taken aback by some requests from gift-givers.
