Fresno VA live music calms PTSD TBI veterans waiting for appointments

Live music at Fresno's VA hospital makes a big difference
Musicians in the hospital waiting room were meant to provide simple distraction, but doctors noticed improvement in many patients, especially those with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.

By Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times
January 16, 2012

Reporting from Fresno— The hospital was built in the years after World War II. Its ceilings are low, corridors long and corners sharp — all possible stress triggers for those who have been in combat.

Not to mention that a hospital waiting room can make anyone edgy.

But the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fresno has found a way to make the experience easier: live music.

A musician playing amid the hustle and bustle is familiar to anyone who has ever sat at a cafe with entertainment or taken the subway. But this has proved to be more. The hospital set out to provide simple distraction, but soon doctors noticed a marked improvement in many of their patients, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Hani Khouzam, a psychiatrist who treats both disorders, said patients have been arriving for appointments so notably calmer that it takes him longer to make a diagnosis — something he welcomes.

"You have to understand what it means for a combat veteran to be agitated in the waiting room.

Their pupils are dilated. They are angry or waiting for something to happen," he said. "But when we have live music that day, they come to me far more relaxed. It's like an amazing miracle, and I don't say that lightly."

On a recent day in a busy main reception area, grandfathers waited for blood work and a young veteran was whisked through on a gurney, face-down and in restraints — possibly headed for a locked psychiatric unit. Jon Sharp, a classical guitarist, played Francisco Tarrega's "Recuerdos de la Alhambra," which begins in wistful melancholy and builds to an uplifting melody.

George Flores, head of the hospital's police force and himself an Iraq War veteran, paused to listen.
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