--- title: Hospital Staff Learns Whip, Nae Nae Dance for Pediatric Cancer Patient description: They learned the moves on YouTube and surprised her canonical: https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-10T21:29:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:14.812Z og:title: Watch This Hospital Staff Surprise a Pediatric Cancer Patient by Learning the Whip/Nae Nae og:description: On her final day of treatment og:url: https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Hospital Staff Surprise a Pediatric Cancer Patient by Learning the Whip/Nae Nae twitter:description: On her final day of treatment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch This Hospital Staff Surprise a Pediatric Cancer Patient by Learning the Whip/Nae Nae by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 10, 2015 9:29 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Aug 10, 2015 9:29 PM UTC Staff at the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center in Louisiana gave 12-year-old patient Sophia Petikas quite a sendoff on her final day of treatment. They learned her favorite dance, the Whip/Nae Nae, and then surprised her with a flash mob, _Inside Edition_ [reports](http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/11313-watch-hospital-surprise-12-year-old-cancer-patient-with-flash-mob-dance-on-her-last). A member of the radiation team named Daniel had promised Sophia he’d learn the moves—and then he recruited several other staffers as well. Sophia’s mom, Julia, told _Inside Edition_ that they all practiced on their own time, led by Daniel, who learned the moves on YouTube. The staff members also wore Sophia’s favorite sneakers, Chuck Taylors, for the big performance. _Read next:_ [_Watch a Texas Cop Dance the ‘Nae Nae’ With Kids_](http://time.com/3957959/texas-police-nae-nae-dance/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/"},"headline":"Watch This Hospital Staff Surprise a Pediatric Cancer Patient by Learning the Whip/Nae Nae","datePublished":"2015-08-10T21:29:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:14.812Z","description":"On her final day of treatment","url":"https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3991621/whip-nae-nae-hospital/","name":"Watch This Hospital Staff Surprise a Pediatric Cancer Patient by Learning the Whip/Nae Nae"}}]}] ```