When an angel appears by your bedside with a harp, it doesn?t necessarily mean the end has come.
At St. Joseph Hospital in Towson, that angel is Christine Jones. A certified music thanatologist, she plays prescriptive harp music that can ease a patient?s ragged breathing or lower a heart rate.
“When those things are addressed it often brings the patient and family members into a state of ease,” she said. “Within 20 minutes they begin to relax and even sleep.”
About half the recipients of her musical “offerings” are on their deathbed. The rest are suffering serious illnesses, trauma or complications from surgery, and the prognosis is usually bad.
Jesse Bull, 84, was getting medications after breakfast following a major heart surgery when Jones entered his room one cloudy November day.
“You don?t have to sit up, this is not a performance. It?s a gift,” Jones told him.
“Who?s that from?” he asked.
“It?s from the nurses.”
After taking his pulse ? 84 beats per minute ? and breathing rate ? 24 breaths per minute ? Jones played a few soft notes. Then the full sound of the harp filled the room as she launched into a nonmetered lullaby.
Bull?s eyelids grew heavy and soon closed. He dozed off somewhat before the end of the tune, but came to as soon as the last notes faded.
“Beautiful,” he said. “Beautiful.”
Several songs later, some of which Jones sung, his heart beat 68 times per minute and breathing had dropped to less than 16 breaths per minute.
“I can?t tell you how much I appreciate this. It certainly was the most wonderful gift I ever received,” he said.
That day, the former warehouse manager left St. Joseph to receive hospice care in his home in Baltimore.
“Prescriptive music” is live music that responds to physiological changes in the patient, according to the Music Thanatology Association?s Web site. “Practitioners, therefore, provide music that is tailored to each specific situation, marrying the length of a musical phrase to the cycle of respiration for example, or supporting a particular emotional process through sensitive application of harmony or rhythm, or a freedom from rhythm.”
Though palliative care and hospice care have been around since the middle ages, the field is small. The association lists about 34 members in the United States and four in Europe.
November is Hospice and Palliative Care Awareness Month in the United States.
While music has long been known for its soothing properties, Jones said you don?t get the same effects from playing a tape at your loved one?s bedside. “When you play a tape for a patient, no one?s prescribing the music for that patient.”
Like a stage performance, she modulates her playing as the patient?s vital signs change, adapting to the stages of death and easing the struggle some face in their final minutes. “I don?t refer to myself as a performer. This is not a show.”
There is also a unique quality to harp music, Jones maintains, that can vibrate deep within the hearer?s chest and even bones.
However the music works, St. Joseph chaplain Maureen O?Brien said it is a powerful experience for the patients and their families. “It really does make a difference.
Christine Jones
Education
» Bachelor of arts in drama/dance, University of Montana
» Master of interdisciplinary studies, integrated learning and education
» Graduate certificate in music-thanatology, St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, Mont.
Current work
» Jewish Social Services, Rockville
» Hospice of the Chesapeake
» MSICU at St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson
