Saturday 18 August 2018

Great Comments


Dear readers,


Thank you all for reading my personal experience about music in the ICU! The blog has been viewed a lot.
I'm happy with all comments that I received from you. It would be lovely to receive more comments. If you know someone with experience with this matter, please let me know. It would also be nice if a larger group of people is reached. You can help realising that by sharing the blog.

Many comments confirm that music has a positive effect on patients and their family/friends in the ICU. Music helped a 15 year old female patient with cerebral palsy in the weaning process! And old-fashion music (1930-1950) helped an old woman during her end-of-life care. 
The ICU can get very busy. The soothing effect of music de-stresses the hard working staff in their lovely care for the critically ill patients. Not only in the ICU, but in other hospital wards music is reported to be of great help as well.
One comment said that long stay ICU patients benefit from the music a lot. It helps prevent delirium in these patients. A few hours after receiving this comment, an article was shared about a study to the effect of music on the conditions that cause delirium. This study confirmed the comment! 
https://healthmanagement.org/c/icu/news/music-helps-prevent-delirium-in-elderly-critical-care-patients

It is important to share that music not only triggers a positive response. Another comment that was received told a story about a man who was in an induced coma due to a severe illness. His partner was allowed to play his favourite music. He did react on the music, but it was a negative response. It made him very restless. Also, the voice from his partner made him restless. She had to be quiet and the music had to be turned off. I think it is possible that he wanted to sing along with the music or talk to his partner, but could not do that because of the induced coma. That could have made him restless.
It’s obvious that sound (music and the voice from a loved one) is still being processed and triggers a response. In the last case, this wasn’t a desirable response, though. Then it is very important that staff can anticipate on the effect.


Thank you for reading,

Bas Meuter

Friday 3 August 2018

Share Your Story!

Dear readers!


In this blog, I want to gather as many special and beautiful stories about the impact of music in healthcare as possible! That's why I'm asking all of you:

If you, your family or friends have a special experience showing the impact of music in healthcare, could you please contact me (Bas)?

Mailing adress: basmeuter@gmail.com

Thanks a lot in advance, and I hope to get many responds, so that we can make the special power of music in healthcare obvious for everyone!


Kind regards,
Bas

My Experience

Dear readers,


The special stories of people with a remarkable experience of music in healthcare will be shared in this blog. This could be experiences from hospital staff, (ex-)patients or family.

My drive to start this blog comes from my own experience:
In 2010 I was in a severe traumatic accident. I was hit by a car when I was riding my bicycle and landed on the street 50 feet further. In comatose condition I was transported to the hospital where I laid in a coma for a week. During my stay on the ICU my family was allowed to play some of my favourite music as it is considered to positively stimulate the brain processes, also in comatose patients.
This helped me a lot. Even before I was answering simple questions of the nurses, I was singing along with music from James Taylor and John Mayer! I did also like the classical piano music from the movie 'Amélie' (which I learned how to play on the guitar as well) and it was played many times. This amazed the nurses as most boys in the age of 16 listen to a whole different music genre. 😉

Also during my rehabilitation, after staying in the hospital for one and a half months, music played a key role in my recovery. From the age of 8 I've been playing classical acoustic guitar and I was pretty well skilled before the accident. During my rehabilitation I was allowed to finally go home during the weekends.
I do remember this pretty well, one weekend when I was home I picked up my guitar and tried to play again. I wasn't able to hit even one string, my hand-eye coordination was totally gone.
During a visit from my guitar teacher she offered me to come in the weekends to help me learn to play the guitar once more. So early in my rehabilitation I was practicing how to play the guitar, and slowly my coordination came back and, luckily, after roughly a year I was plucking the strings like I did before!

Thanks to playing the guitar which makes the left and right brain work together, and the best family and friends I've been fully recovered! Now, 8 years after the accident, I'm busy with my master's degree in Technical Medicine (Medical Sensing and Stimulation) at the University of Twente. My aim for the future is to do studies to understand the exact mechanism of what music does to the brain, so that we can offer the perfect music for every patient!

Now I'm participating in a project to bring live music to the ICU in the Netherlands, 'MuzIC'. We hope that in a few years all ICU's will welcome the great musicians to play for their patients. Then not only the patient, but also family, friends and the ICU staff will benefit from the soothing effect of the live music!


Thanks for reading,
Bas