MONTEVIDEO — At the age of 85, Uruguayan Olga Diaz’s
kidneys are failing — she was
beginning to despair at her bleak future, kept alive by 12 hours of dialysis
per week.
اضافة اعلان
But at the clinic
where she receives her treatment, Diaz has found a new “will to live” thanks to
live tango and milonga performances.
“This is more
than medicine,” Diaz told AFP from the Diaverum clinic in Montevideo.
It is 9am and
Diaz is one of 20 patients sitting in armchairs, all connected to the
“artificial kidneys” that purify their blood.
Suddenly the
sound of the machines and chattering nurses are drowned out by bandoneon music
and a voice singing the classic tango piece “Naranjo en flor.”
Smiles break out
across the faces of patients, including Diaz, who visits the clinic three times
a week to spend four hours connected to a machine.
“I had fallen
into a routine. I did things but without my old enthusiasm,” she said.
“The music gave
my soul life and gave me the will to live, joy, enthusiasm, those things that
were fading.”
Other patients
agree that these mini-concerts have improved their quality of life.
Rafael
Gutierrez, 46, says music “makes time go faster” and makes the dialysis
treatment “much more bearable.”
The show lasts
40 minutes and every patient has a front row seat.
Hospital Tango
Scientific research shows that listening to music reduces anxiety and
stress, and stabilizes the heartbeat and pulse.
It also affects
the areas of the brain related to pleasure by boosting dopamine.
Music’s
therapeutic benefits have been “amply demonstrated,” says nephrologist Gerardo
Perez, 68, adding that the
World Health Organization (WHO) has “for years”
recommended incorporating art and culture into health systems.
That is why he
has spent two decades playing tango on his bandoneon to dialysis patients.
But last year,
his personal initiative was transformed into the “Hospital Tango” project that
puts on mini concerts in health centers and hospitals.
The idea is to
temporarily take people away from their “worry, illness, uncertainty,
suffering.”
“Often they
don’t know what their diagnosis is or what will happen in their lives,” said
Perez.
In hospital,
“they have a lot of time to be alone, often worried.”
Other bandoneon
players, singers and guitarists have come on board to perform throughout
Montevideo.
Inspired by the
Spanish Musicians for Health NGO, the group is now trying to set itself up as a
charity, widen its activities and branch out onto a national level.
For now, the
group focuses on tango, which Perez touts as “world cultural heritage,” but its
mission could expand to include other forms of music or even theater.
In fact “any
artistic expression,” is on the table, according to Perez.
‘Much more than respite’In a small room, bandoneon players Abril Farolini, 22, and Ramiro
Hernandez, 35, and singer Paola Larrama, 37, put on protective gowns and
facemasks.
It is an unusual
experience for musicians, as is the early morning hour and the audience of
hospital patients connected to dialysis machines.
But adapting to
such a strange environment reaps dividends: namely the satisfaction of giving
“much more than respite,” said Hernandez, who was a founding member of Hospital
Tango.
“It also
generates happiness and good humor,” he added.
For Larrama it
is a “very moving” experience, especially given the patients’ “willingness to
connect.”
“It’s not the
same as playing somewhere where the people came to see you,” she said.
“Here we are bringing
something to them, while people are going through a different experience.”
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