At the age of 85, Uruguayan Olga Diaz's kidneys are failing, and she was beginning to despair at her bleak future. But at the clinic where she receives her treatment, Diaz has found a new “will to live” thanks to live tango and milonga performances.
“This is more than medicine,” Diaz told AFP from the Diaverum clinic in Montevideo.
Diaz is one of 20 patients sitting in armchairs, all connected to the “artificial kidneys” that purify their blood.
Suddenly the sound of the machines and chattering nurses are drowned out by bandoneon music and a voice singing the classic tango piece “Naranjo en flor.”
Smiles break out across the faces of patients, including Diaz, who visits the clinic three times a week to spend four hours connected to a machine.
“I had fallen into a routine. I did things but without my old enthusiasm. The music gave my soul life and gave me the will to live, joy, enthusiasm, those things that were fading,” she said.
Other patients agree that these mini concerts have improved their quality of life.
Rafael Gutierrez, 46, says music “makes time go faster” and makes the dialysis treatment “much more bearable.”
The show lasts 40 minutes and every patient has a front row seat.
Scientific research shows that listening to music reduces anxiety and stress and stabilizes the heartbeat and pulse. It also affects the areas of the brain related to pleasure by boosting dopamine.
Music's therapeutic benefits have been “amply demonstrated,” says nephrologist Gerardo Perez, adding that the World Health Organization (WHO) has “for years” recommended incorporating art and culture into health systems.
That is why he has spent two decades playing tango on his bandoneon to dialysis patients.
But last year, his personal initiative was transformed into the “Hospital Tango” project that puts on mini concerts in health centers and hospitals.
The idea is to temporarily take people away from their “worry, illness, uncertainty, suffering.”
Other bandoneon players, singers and guitarists have come on board to perform throughout Montevideo.
For now, the group focuses on tango, which Perez touts as “world cultural heritage,” but its mission could expand to include other forms of music or even theater.
