It?s hard to compete with the drone of air circulation and countless medical instruments and machines, but for a short time Wednesday, one corner of Mercy Medical Center transformed from a chemotherapy treatment center to a world of music.
As Cathy Maglaras starts to play ? you can?t pick out any tunes, but the melodies are entrancing ? her host and other patients at Mercy?s Oncology Outpatient Center visibly relax.
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“It?s soothing. It?s delightful,” said Wanda Soles, 79, of Ellicott City, on Tuesday. “I was surprised when I heard of this, when she came in.”
Maglaras is a therapeutic healing musician recently contracted by Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore to provide “healing and transitional” music for its cancer and other patients.
Mercy brought her in through a $5,000 grant from the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund. She plays twice a week, alternating among Mercy?s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Outpatient Chemotherapy center and on several floors in Mercy?s acute care tower.
“I was a musician already,” Maglaras said. “Then I took a weeklong seminar in Celtic harp at McDaniel College. Then I saw the reaction of even friends, playing simple melodies for friends ? there was just an amazing response to the melody.”
For those suffering or waiting for treatment at Mercy, the music can help ease their anxieties about what may be a life-and-death struggle against cancer. “I play the music and adjust it around the patient, watch how they?re breathing, watch them and respond with the music,” she said.
Each time she enters a room or introduces herself to a patient, Maglaras asks permission to play, then tells them they can stop the music at any time.
“It?s not entertainment,” she said. “It?s whatever the music needs to do for the patient. Often the patient quietly falls asleep. Sometimes I need to bring some emotion out. I?ve even brought tears ? ?good tears.? ”
The music has a positive effect on the staff too, nurse Madeline Lowery said.
“We?re doing a lot of things at the same time, keeping a lot of balls in the air,” she said. “When she?s playing and that relaxes you on some level, it makes it easier to do our multitasking.”
