A musical therapist who works with terminally ill children and their families at Cincinnati Children's Hospital has begun creating musical memories using the heartbeats of dying patients.
Brian Schreck records the thump of a patient's heartbeat using an improvised stethoscope microphone, and then lays an instrumental version of their favorite song over the top.
Schreck was struck by the need to preserve some essence of a person when a mother whose daughter was dying told him she was afraid she would forget her daughter's voice.
He would record musical therapy sessions with patients to leave their family with a collection of memories and music, but when he began working in the intensive care units with dying patients, it became difficult to capture these moments.
After seeing a story on the news of a woman's response to hearing her deceased daughter's heart beating inside a donor recipient's chest, Schreck realized he could capture a patient's 'rhythmic essence' and create music that is meaningful to the patient and their family.
Source material from Mail Online