Sebastiao gasps, unable to control his breathing, but suddenly the sounds of a flute calm his discomfort. They are the chords of a song he remembers from long ago, played by one of the musicians dedicated to alleviating the suffering of patients being treated for their pain at a Brazilian hospital.
"When I first came here there were about 13 people in the ward. Sebastiao wore an oxygen mask and breathed with great difficulty, very fast. But when I started playing his breathing calmed down in 10 seconds. Everybody started crying and I almost cried myself," Brazilian flutist Antonio Carrasqueira told EFE.
Antonio's story is one of the many emotional accounts told by musicians who every week go to Sao Paulo's Premier Hospital, not to play songs from their own repertoire but rather songs that the patients remember from long ago.
Several years ago Samir Salman, director of the clinic for those suffering degenerative diseases or for seniors who need pain relief, decided to include music in the "hospital's strategy, as one more therapeutic treatment."
"The idea is that the musician brings back the patient's musical memories with the help of the medical staff and the sick person's biography," he told EFE in an interview.