Waubonsee Community College

Andrew & Wendy, produced and directed by Josh Aronson

eng

videorecording

Andrew & Wendy

957520139

produced and directed by Josh Aronson

29

57-year-old Andrew Schulman, a classical guitarist, had a near catastrophic reaction to a blood transfusion, which resulted in him being put into a medically induced coma. His conditioned worsened in the ICU and his doctors tried every medical solution to heal him, to no avail. Wendy knew Andrew's deepest connection to the universe was with music. As a desperate effort, she put headphones on him and played his favorite sacred music - Bach's 'St Mathew's Passion', and within hours, doctors saw that Andrew's body functions had stabilized, and he woke up a few days later. Remarkably, both his surgeons agreed that it was the music that awakened him from his coma.The Director of the Surgical ICU, Dr. Marvin McMillen, speaks eloquently in the film of the power of music to help to heal critically ill patients. An ICU is about the world's worst healing environment, he says. Designed for science and medicine, the antiseptic coldness and incessant beeping and humming of monitors and machines provokes anxiety and makes it difficult for patients and visiting family to be relaxed. Music is a normalizing influence that can offset these negative stimuli. The music Wendy played saved Andrew's life, when modern medicine failed to do so. Although his resuscitation seems miraculous, this film explains the fascinating and complex connection between music and the brain, and how our connection to music can be an indelible link to the outside world. We know now that music is fundamental to us and is as important as the high tech machines and drugs we use for healing our patients

adult