HOUSTON – There are hundreds of patients at Texas Children's Hospital and one musical therapist.
Musical therapist, Marial Biard, said it is her job is to heal the parts of the patients that medicine cannot. For some babies in the cardiology unit, she's making songs with their heartbeat.
Baby Tenley Kennedy has a condition where she was born with half of a heart, her left ventricle never fully formed.
Her parents prepared themselves for her to have a short life but as she's moved up on the heart transplant list she has inspired everyone who has watched her fight, including Biard, who wrote a song to the beat of Tenley’s heart.
“Thank you for fighting for dad and mommy, you're stronger than we will ever be,” sings Biard.
“So these broken heartbeats become the ostinato or the bass beat to the song that we are then able to record music or lyrics over and turn that into the entirety of the song,” Biard said she thinks of it as the broken beat that creates a whole song.
Tenley's mom, Kelly Kennedy, lives in the hospital waiting on a heart transplant for her daughter. https://www.booster.com/tenley-tough
“She's number two on the list right now but you never know whenever it's going to happen,” Kennedy said.
She admits the worrying can wear down their spirit, which is why she said the song titled “Tenley’s Tougher,” is helping them.
“I cried like a baby, it was the most sentimental thing that's ever happened to us,” Kennedy said, “because this was going to be our only memory of her.”
As she gets closer to the top of the transplant list, Tenley's struggling heart still sings.
“When I walk in and Tenley sees me playing the guitar, she knows automatically that this is something that is good. She's not going to get poked, she's not going to get examined and any way, she's going to get to be the boss for a little bit in the situation and make sound and have fun and enjoy these moments of her life,” Biard said.
Biard encourages families to make happy memories while in the hospital. She has written three songs for infants in the cardiology unit.