Date:   4/30/2004 9:29:28 PM ( 20 y ago)
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The Man With The Healing Harmonica
'These Damn Doctors... All They Want To Do Is Push Pills'
By Graeme Smith
The Globe and Mail
4-29-4

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."

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.

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.

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.

"These damn doctors, that's what they should give people," Mr. Fitzpatrick said. "But all they want to do is push pills."

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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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.

"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.

"I don't think it's quackery, because there's a physiological basis to all this," Dr. Yachemetz said.

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.

Afterward, he says, he often tries to persuade staff that they should start teaching the instrument to the residents.

"It's not just a tin toy," he said.

© Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040429.wxhharm
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