Music therapy to revive rape victim from coma
Doctors at the Cuttack-based Sriram Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College and Hospital have started applying “music therapy” to revive a Dalit girl — a gang-rape victim from Pipli in Puri district.
The girl is struggling for her life in hospital after slipping into coma.
According to sources in the government-run health centre, devotional songs are played with a music system on the girl’s bedside inside the intensive care unit (ICU) from Friday evening.
The behaviour of the patient is being monitored constantly and her movements are also being video graphed. The process is likely to continue for a week.
“We came to know that she was singing well and had an aim to be a singer. Therefore, we decided to apply the music therapy on the advice of the experts,” said a doctor who is member of the team monitoring the girl’s condition.
Hospital sources said neurologists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) who had been contacted by the Cuttack health centre as well as Dr Bhawani Shankar Das, a former head of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bangalore, had also advised the doctors treating her to go for music therapy as a last resort to revive her.
Dr Das who had visited the patient two days back and conducted a thorough examination had diagnosed that the teenage girl was suffering from “irreversible brain damage” and chances of her complete recovery were slim.
The high court which has been monitoring her treatment had asked the doctors to take up her case as a challenge and also seek experts’ advice if necessary.
Experts opine that apart from increasing the metabolic activities within the human body and accelerating respiration, music also helps to improve muscular activities in the central nervous system.
