I am a pediatric intensive care physician who has been practicing at St. Vincent Children’s Hospital for over twenty-years. I’ve worked at many world class children’s hospitals for the past thirty-two years, but before I met Johnny Warpinski and Cassie Kremer, I had never encountered therapeutic musicians in action.
I have witnessed many incredible encounters between Johnny and Cassie and my hospitalized patients. I’ve seen children with leukemia light up with delight when Johnny and Cassie sing their favorite Disney song. I’ve seen the faces of worried mothers fill with a calm peace when their hospitalized infant is sung to sleep. I saw tears of gratitude fall from the eyes of patients in the emergency room when Johnny and Cassie sang to them, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” one late December. I literally saw an aphasic adult on the stroke rehabilitation ward sing along to Johnny and Cassie’s rendition of a Mo-town classic. This same man was unable to speak a single word just moments earlier.
Johnny and Cassie are incredible musicians and even more incredible human beings. They have volunteered their time at St. Vincent for the past eight-years to make patients’ – and hospital staff’s – lives a little bit better. I consider them part of my pediatric healing team, alongside nurses and child-life therapists. Sometimes what they offer is simply a small break in the monotony of passing days in the hospital. Sometimes it is more. When I listen to them play at St. Vincent Children’s Hospital, I hear a mixture of love, compassion, kindness and hope.
Ralph Vardis M.D. pediatric intensive care at St Vincent Hospital