Dr. Raffi Tachdjian sits on the floor of the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA with 3-year-old Vincent “Vinny” Carramusa on Wednesday afternoon. But Tachdjian, a pediatric fellow in the division of allergy and immunology, is not there to assess Vinny’s health or use a stethoscope.
He is there to use a tambourine and a bright-blue maraca.
With Tachdjian playing a maraca, Vinny sings his rendition of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, complete with tambourine accompaniment.
Before Tachdjian leaves, he promises to return with bongo drums for Vinny, unlike the communal instruments from the hospital on which the children typically learn and play.
“Some bongos for Vinny ““ they will be yours. They will be your Vongos,” Tachdjian said to the child.
Tachdjian provides the patients of children’s hospitals with musical instruments through the Children’s Music Fund, a foundation he created in 2002 during his pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In Massachusetts, he was able to purchase instruments, which were about $100 each, for about 150 children every year.
The Children’s Music Fund is supported by the sale of CDs featuring some of Tachdjian’s own music, as well as songs from musicians from all over the country.
Many of the specialists who work with the same children as Tachdjian strive to make sure the patients’ stay at the hospital is as childlike and fun as possible, said Sara Devaney, a child life specialist at the Mattel Children’s Hospital.
“We teach children and their families how to cope with illness. Many who come here stay for months or even years. We try to make their lives fun and playful,” Devaney said.
“The proceeds from the sale of the CD help the program survive, and what Dr. Tachdjian does for the kids is absolutely phenomenal. He brings them the instruments and it makes them smile and have a twinkle in their eye when they speak of him,” Devaney said.
Tachdjian started by playing his own music in concerts for his patients in Boston.
“I did not take music lessons formally other than maybe five guitar lessons. I prefer playing by ear and focusing on creating new sounds and combinations. To me, music is essentially math and physics packed into a language through patterns,” Tachdjian said.
As the funding for the Children’s Music Fund grows, Tachdjian plans to conduct further research into how music can benefit patients’ health.
“I want to study how music affects kids’ perception, its effects on hospital length of stay and how it can decrease the use of conscious sedation, which is a method used to protect the children during painful procedures, but can take several hours to recover from,” Tachdjian said.
Tachdjian admits that while his foundation is a “one-man show,” his help would not reach children without the contributions from community businesses and businesspeople who have personal relationships with him.
“Before Dr. Tachdjian went to medical school and I started a record company, we used to work and record music together. Now, I license music for his CD for free,” said Allen Avanessian, Tachdjian’s childhood friend and general manager of Plug Research.
With the proceeds from his CD, Tachdjian said he would like to increase support for the use of musical therapy in pediatric treatment.
In musical therapy, patients actively participate in creating the music with the therapist.
“Pre-recorded music is a finished product ““ all that can be altered is the volume. In a concert performance, the musicians play music that has been already thought out. But in music therapy, the music can adapt to the patients’ responses, needs and requests,” Tachdjian said.
If, for example, the child starts to get distracted by a painful procedure or the noise of the equipment in the room, the musical therapist can play more actively and draw the child back.
“By actively playing, patients decrease their pain and increase their pain threshold,” Tachdjian said.
Any child patient is eligible to receive an instrument through the Children’s Music Fund. Through the fund’s Web site, caregivers and family members can recommend a patient.
Tachdjian said he plans to continue to give out instruments to any interested patient and has high hopes for the future of the foundation and musical therapy.