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Old Man In Nursing Home Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era (Video)

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Picture 181Music affects us all differently but it’s clear music definitely affects all of us and some of us, profoundly.

A recent video that went viral this past week shows an old man who reacts to hearing music from his era. The man proves that music has a place in our hearts where no time, age or health condition can change the way we feel about it.

In the video, viewers learn that an old man named Henry has been living at a nursing home, the Cobble Hill Health Center, for over a decade and has been barely responsive and battling seizures, with his head found down on his wheelchair more often than not.

Henry showed little signs of life, that is until reception therapist Yvonne Russell gave him the gift of music from his own era. She spoke to Henry, rubbed his back, put earphones on him and an iPod on his table. With the flip of a switch, Henry was back and the music proved to be successful in lighting him up again. “I’ll be home for Christmas,” Henry sings in one scene, as he moves his arms and his eyes light up.

“We first see Henry inert, maybe depressed, unresponsive and almost un-alive,” neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks says in the video. “Then he is given an iPod containing we know is his favourite music and immediately lights up. His face assumes expression, his eyes open wide, he starts to sing.”

According to reports, the video is from a new documentary called Alive Inside that follows a social worker who introduces iPods into a nursing home in an attempt to investigate the power of music.  Check it out.