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HALIFAX — A Halifax neurosurgeon has performed a career first, after a young patient asked him to stitch up a beloved teddy bear while the boy recovered from surgery.

Like many of Dr. Daniel McNeely’s patients, eight-year-old Jackson McKie — who he’s looked after since he was an infant — brought a stuffed toy to the operating room with him last Thursday.

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McNeely said he couldn’t say no when the boy asked him to fix a tear in his fluffy friend right before his surgery.

“I thought if there was something I could do to help make him feel better, it seemed like a simple gesture and I was only too happy to oblige,” McNeely said Tuesday.

The doctor asked the nurses to prepare a small table with some tools, and he used leftover stitches from McKie’s procedure to patch up the bear, Little Baby.

A medical resident at Halifax’s IWK Health Centre snapped a photo of the heartwarming moment.

I thought it might make a few people smile, that was the only intention I had. I'm glad that others are enjoying it

Little Baby’s operation was McNeely’s first on a toy — and he decided to share the photos as his first-ever tweet.

McNeely posted the photos to his Twitter feed @pdmcneely, writing “Patient asks if I can also fix teddy bear just before being put off to sleep … how could I say no?”