Summary

Andrew Schulman is a New York guitarist with a long history of playing in hotels, restaurants, small groups, and formal concerts—even in Carnegie Hall, the White House, and Royal Albert Hall. His memoir describes his experience as a patient in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), where he was briefly clinically dead. Six months later he began a part-time career as a guitarist playing for patients and staff in that very same SICU. 
           
In July of 2009, Schulman underwent surgery for a pancreatic tumor (luckily benign) but crashed afterward. He suffered cardiac arrest and shortage of blood to his brain for 17 minutes. Doctors induced a week-long medical coma, but his condition worsened. His wife asked if he could hear music; he had brought a prepared iPod. When the opening chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion played in his earbud, the computer monitor showed that his vital signs stabilized, and he survived. The nurses called it a miracle.
           

Convinced of music’s healing power, Schulman proposed that he return and play for patients and staff. He describes various patients for whom he played over the next six years (with permission or changes of name and details). He explains his approach to choosing music, pacing it, and feeling hunches for what is right for a given patient. He interviews experts and reads scientific papers in order to explain how the brain processes music. Music reminds patients of their earlier, healthier lives; it coordinates right and left brain; it brings calmness and peace.
 
Imaging studies show that music (and emotionally charged literature) stimulate the brain regions associated with reward—similar to euphoria, sex, and use of addictive drugs.

Schulman knew some 300 pieces from a wide range of music, but his illness damaged his memory so that he could recall only six of them. That meant his work relied on sheet music. Near the end of the book, however, his “rehab” of playing three times a week, concentrating on the music, and intending to help others—all this allowed his brain to heal, and he began to memorize as before. Schulman consults with experts and undergoes two brain scans and other studies that show the neuroplasticity of this brain that allowed it to rewire and memorize once again.

Although Music Therapy is discussed as an allied profession, Schulman is considered, rather, as a “medical musician” playing only in the SICU. Provision of music, whether by Music Therapist or “medical musician,” is, however, usually not covered by insurance and therefore not available to patients.           

There’s a six-page Afterword by Dr. Marvin A. McMillen, who Schulman describes as “central” to his survival. McMillen writes that being both a critical care doctor and a critical care patient himself (polycystic kidney disease), he knows the importance of emotional support to patients, healing environments, and the power of music. McMillen was also pivotal in allowing Schulman to play in the SICU.

Commentary

This is a clear, interesting, and inspiring book, enjoyable and informative on several levels. It is an extraordinary treat for readers interested in integrative medicine or in music, and it shows how well music fits into the emerging field of Health Humanities.   Schulman shares his personal reactions to his illness, mental loss, and drive to assist other patients. We feel we know this man, his talent, and his commitment to music as a healing art. Further, he has an investigator’s urge to understand current scientific knowledge about music and healing, so he consults experts, reads, and creates hypotheses from his own experience. His explanations to readers are clear and memorable; the topics include neurology, pain theory, musical acoustics, and ICU stress.  Five pages of notes document papers and studies that he summarizes in his text.

The book makes clear that music should be used in hospitals to help patients heal. 
I was a music volunteer in two medical centers, bringing guitar and voice to patients’ rooms; it was easy to see the calming effect on patients. Some would sing with me.     
      

Miscellaneous

Music Therapist Barbara L. Wheeler, Ph.D., contributes 14 pages of Resources about music and medicine, J. S. Bach, music and the brain, and related topics.

Music lovers may recognize the notes printed on the book’s cover as two bars of melody from the opening chorus of the St. Matthew Passion that Schulman heard on his earbud when gravely ill and suddenly began to heal.
 

Publisher

Picador

Place Published

New York

Edition

2016

Page Count

291