Music-loving ICU doctor put smile on patients' faces with guitar skills

28 February 2023 , 19:54

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Music-loving ICU doctor put smile on patients' faces with guitar skills

Music-loving critical care consultant Tom Owen gives it strum to put a smile on the face of an Oasis fan.

And Liam Sutcliffe is just one of dozens of seriously ill patients the 50-year-old has proved the perfect tonic for since he decided to start taking his guitar to work three years ago.

Tom, an anaesthetist from Kendall, Cumbria, said: “I get a smile out of them, I like to think it’s all part of the rehabilitation process. If I could give up medicine and go round the country playing for patients, I would do it at the drop of a hat.

“I ask what songs they like. One patient asked for Streets of London by Ralph McTell, so I went off and learnt it.”

Speaking about the reactions he gets, Tom – who plays in a band when not on duty at Royal Preston Hospital’s ICU – said: “Some people’s families have been left in tears. You can tell how much it means."

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Tom Owen, consultant in the critical care unit at Preston Royal Hospital (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

Liam, 35, says hearing Oasis tunes perked him up after several weeks fighting sepsis, strep and pneumonia following a bout of flu at Christmas.

At one point it was touch and go, and he had a tracheotomy so he could breathe. But when he came round from a three-week coma, Tom lifted his spirits.

Liam, an undertaker from Longridge, Lancs, said: “When someone plays you music, for that short period you think you’re not in hospital.

Liam, 35, says hearing Oasis tunes perked him up after several weeks fighting sepsis, strep and pneumonia following a bout of flu at Christmas (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

"It perks you up because you go from feeling down and bored to feeling like you’re down the pub.”

Liam is now back at home with partner Abby Brown, who is expecting their second child.

Tom Owen consultant in the critical care unit at Preston Royal plays to patient Liam and his partner Abby (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

Recalling how Tom sang Wonderwall for them, Abby, 33, said: “We were in tears as Liam couldn’t talk. It was massive, because of the songs Liam picked. The words reflected what we were going through. It was the highlight of the week, having Tom singing.”

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