Slideshow: The Music Lady

Friday, March 24, 2006

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Multimedia presentation by
Annie O'Neill
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A melody rises above the beeping of monitors in a room at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. It might be Bach or it might be "Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea." Either way, it means that music therapist Debbie Benkovitz is making her rounds today.

Depending on the child and the situation, she uses music to perk them up or calm them down. She figures out the mood of the patient, plays music to match it, then moves the music in the direction that the hospital staff wants the child to go.

"It's absolutely amazing," said Autumn Lord, 23, a registered nurse at Children's Hospital for two years. "I think it's just like medicine. She's basically one of our medicines for getting kids to calm down. She's wonderful."

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First published on March 24, 2006 at 12:00 am

Dan Majors assisted with the text. Annie O'Neill can be contacted at aoneill@post-gazette.com.