A Stroke Patient Finding Hope With Every Strum

Veronica went to the hospital for surgery and during the surgery, she had a stroke. The stroke has caused left side paralysis. Veronica felt pretty hopeless and discouraged by everything that happened. The nursing staff on the Neurology floor asked that I see her for music therapy. Turned out she has been a singer and guitar player her entire life. Her enthusiasm about music therapy was amazing. Her left hand was not functional, but her right hand was very functional, so we decided to try playing together. In subsequent visits, I did the left-hand fingering for the chords she wanted for some old favorites and even a couple of original songs. She was thrilled and more importantly, she felt hope for the future again. The PA in charge of her case sought me ought to thank me for my work with her and told me that after she had the first MT session with me she was like a new person. The PA told me, "I just wanted you to know how important your work is, how much you helped Veronica and how much we value having music therapy (at Renown)".

As you can hear Victoria say at the end of the video, Music Therapist, Sharon is "Awesome!"