- Harmonicas saved the life of Jake Fitzpatrick, according
to the story he tells just about everywhere he goes. The 73-year-old former
mechanic has become a kind of evangelist for the healing powers of the
mouth harp, ever since he came down with a severe case of chronic bronchitis
two decades ago. "I darned near died," Mr. Fitzpatrick said.
"The doctor said, 'You shouldn't bother going to the hospital.' But
I started playing harmonica. . . . If I hadn't used it, I'd be a dead man
today."
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- When he recovered his strength, Mr. Fitzpatrick began
travelling to every nursing home within driving distance of his home in
Kingsville, Ont., to play music and spread the word about his instrument's
health benefits.
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- At the time, nobody thought harmonicas could improve
breathing. There still isn't any research confirming the technique works,
but it has slowly gained popularity in recent years as several U.S. hospitals
included harmonicas in their respiratory-therapy programs.
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- For Mr. Fitzpatrick, the health fad isn't catching on
quickly enough. The dust that settled in his lungs while he was working
at a farm-equipment dealership left him bedridden and wheezing in the mid-1980s,
he said, but regular practice with the harmonica made him healthy enough
to play for three hours at a time.
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- "These damn doctors, that's what they should give
people," Mr. Fitzpatrick said. "But all they want to do is push
pills."
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- Officials at the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists
say they're not aware of any harmonica programs in Canada. But hospitals
in Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida and New Jersey have started teaching patients
with emphysema, bronchitis and other respiratory ailments how to play harmonicas
as a way to exercise breathing muscles and increase lung capacity.
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- Patients are often skeptical when Brenda Celmer, a respiratory
therapist at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., hands them
a harmonica for the first time.
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- "A lot of people say they think we're nuts,"
Ms. Celmer said. "They have no idea we can use a harmonica for therapy."
-
- She usually starts her classes with a simple tune that
everybody knows, such as Jingle Bells. The results aren't particularly
musical at first, she said, but that's not the point. She wants her patients
to focus on expanding and contracting their lungs.
-
- "We could use kazoos, but they would be harder to
listen to, frankly," Ms. Celmer said.
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- The Illinois hospital started off with 15 patients in
2002, and has since expanded the program to include about 50 people, most
suffering from emphysema. They're told to play about 15 to 30 minutes each
day. Doctors have been surprised by the patients' progress.
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- "Even the next day you feel like you're breathing
easier," said Gerry Darcy, one of the participants. The 65-year-old
relied on an oxygen tank for five years as she struggled with the final
stages of emphysema, but now has enough breath to carry on a long telephone
conversation with only a few pauses to cough.
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- "Some people gave up," Ms. Darcy said, describing
the frustration of learning a new instrument. "They couldn't stick
with it. But some people could play surprisingly well at our next meeting."
-
- A similar program at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center
in New Jersey also produced strong anecdotal results, said Carol Tanghare,
a nurse practitioner in the hospital's pulmonary medicine department.
-
- "We never really tracked it long-term, but the patients
loved it as an exercise option," Ms. Tanghare said. "We were
thrilled by it."
-
- Outside experts such as Ted Yachemetz, head of the respiratory-therapy
department at the University of Manitoba, say that using a harmonica as
a therapy tool makes sense in theory, as long as patients use it as part
of an exercise regimen that strengthens muscles around the lungs.
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- "I don't think it's quackery, because there's a
physiological basis to all this," Dr. Yachemetz said.
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- That's the kind of endorsement that Mr. Fitzpatrick needs,
as he continues to tour nursing homes around Southern Ontario. He sets
up his folding table and speaker system, hangs a banner for The Society
for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica, and gives a rousing
show.
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- Afterward, he says, he often tries to persuade staff
that they should start teaching the instrument to the residents.
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- "It's not just a tin toy," he said.
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