By Mary O’KEEFE

USC Verdugo Hills Hospital administrators and staff understand that healing is physical and spiritual. The term “healing the whole person” has long been a focus by those at the hospital.

In addition to continually adding innovations, like its new Cath Lab, they have also offered babysitting classes, hosted art exhibits, had exercise classes and countless seminars on a variety of issues and provided a healing garden for those at the hospital.

On a recent evening in May they gathered world-renowned musicians, and former patients, for a “Music for Medicine” event.

The idea for the evening of music came after Dr. René Sotelo, a surgeon at USC-VHH, had a patient play a mini-concert for him.

“[The patient] was so grateful after his surgery he said he wanted to do a concert in my office,” Sotelo said. “I asked my friend Gustavo [Dudamel], ‘What do you think about asking patients to play?’”

Dudamel and Sotelo met in Venezuela when Sotelo was practicing medicine. Dudamel is a Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor and violinist who performed at the “Music for Medicine” event. Other performing musicians included Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, pianist John Rodby, bassist David Hughes, oboist Jhanai Hernández, pianist Mitsuko Morikawa and David Pittel and Gaudy Sánchez on trumpet, Alberto Arvelo on Cuatro Venezolano (a type of guitar), Jean Luis Contreras on guitar and Daniel Rodriguez on percussion.

The idea of performing music in a place of healing just seemed to be a perfect fit, so Sotelo contacted musicians he knew and musicians who were patients and suddenly the small concert became a night of music usually set in theatres like the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or Disney Music Hall.

Professional musicians came together for an amazing night that included “The Flight of The Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and arranged by saxophonist Harvey Pittel.

Among the musicians who performed was Jacob Cohan who grew up watching MTV.

“I was alone a lot; my parents worked far away so MTV – that was it,” he said.

Though he gravitated more toward bands like Black Sabbath and Motorhead, and has played with numerous bands, the Music for Medicine night at USC-VHH had him in a whole other world – of which he was excited to be a part.

Cohan’s journey to the night of music was not a path he thought he would ever take. He shared that about a week before Thanksgiving he noticed blood in his urine. He didn’t have a lot of pain then but was concerned so he went to his doctor.

“They sent me to Imaging,” he said.

What they discovered was a tumor on his kidney and he was advised to have surgery right away. But that was easier said than done.

“I thought I could wait but the doctor said, ‘No, you have to go right now,’” he said.

But “right now” does not mean the same thing to some insurance companies than to everyone else, so it took some time for Cohan to get to a surgeon.

He said he ended up being in the right place in the right time because he was introduced to Dr. Sotelo, whom Cohan credits with saving his life.

He ended up having surgery in April and, although tests show his cancer is gone, he was still sore and tired when the evening of “Music for Medicine” began – but nothing would stop him from performing. He played the conga drums and said he felt honored to be with the musicians on the stage.

“Music is a universal language,” he said.

In addition to being a celebration through music it was also a night to raise funds and awareness for Sotelo’s research that focuses on urological-oncological practice. The doctor is a pioneer and leader in robotic and laparoscopic surgery. He wants USC-VHH to be the center for his research.

According to USC-VHH, Sotelo’s “vision consists of three pillars: education, research and advancement in the development of new techniques to treat urologic-oncologic pathologies. He believes that education must include reaching out to patients to guide and help them take responsibility for their health.”

Hopefully, part of that responsibility will be setting aside time to enjoy some music, which might be considered the greatest medicine of all.