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Sweet Music in the ER Friday,
December 23 [2005] It was a busy pre-hospital evening in the ER — she was a very pleasant lady who lived alone. She had not had a good fall season and was in chronic pain from an osteoporotic fracture. She had been brought in by an old friend who drove more than one hour to her house and then to the ER. She had a new acute medical problem that needed evaluation, and chance had made me her doctor. I was writing her chart at the nurse's station when I first heard the singing. Initially, I thought one of the patients' TVs had a Christmas special on, but as I continued to do my charting, the carol was intermittently clearer, and I realized it was coming from the ER waiting room. My paperwork complete for the moment, I slipped out to the lobby. I was pleasantly surprised to find about 30 women of all ages in festive red holiday outfits beautifully singing Christmas songs in wonderful harmony. As the Sweet Adelines finished their song and started to leave, I thought of her. I asked the chorus if they would do one more song and if they would just wait a minute or two. They graciously agreed. I rushed back to the ER, grabbed the closest wheelchair and with the help of her friend and the nurse working with me, we got her out of bed and into the wheelchair. As I pushed her around the corner, other ER staff had held both doors to the waiting room open and the entire chorus stood in a semicircle. While I wheeled her to "center stage," they broke into one of the most spirited versions of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" I had ever heard. My patient began to tap her feet, and then clap her hands, and on the last verse, she became the choir director, waving an imaginary baton to direct the singers. At the end of the song I turned, and perhaps 25 visitors, ambulatory patients and ER staff stood behind us and burst into applause. She beamed. If there was a dry eye in the house, it wasn't mine. People ask me "how can you do what you do every day?" The answer is in moments like this when this fine hospital and the wonderful members of this community like the members of the Sweet Adelines come together to serenade a lovely lady. It was a glorious moment — I just want to "Go tell it on the mountain." GEORGE E. DEERING, M.D.
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