Violinist doctor is instrumental in his care
Before surgery, a physician and a musician engage in a preoperating room performance.
It was going to be just another routine surgery for Dr. William Sloan to perform, but instead of an operating instrument, the first thing he grabbed was a violin bow.
Last month, Sloan performed a concert in a preoperating room at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital, where he played the violin while his patient, musician Sergio Vigilato, strummed a nylonstringed guitar.
“We had the surgeons and nurses all around, so we played a little tune for them,” Sloan, a urologist, said. “It was exactly what we hoped for, everyone was appreciative. When you work in surgery, you never get a treat like that.”
Sloan has played the violin since childhood, and Vigilato, an Italian from Brazil, has played professionally for 60 years.
Vigilato said he enjoyed the short performance, but, like most pros, couldn’t help with the self-critique afterward.
“I just wished I was in better shape, and I wished that we had rehearsed different songs, but that’s my professional perception as a musician,” he said. “But I did go into the operating room feeling very comfortable.”
Much like in any surgeon-patient relationship, Vigilato first met with Sloan at the doctor’s office. During the visit, they found out that they were both musicians.
That’s when they decided to jam together before the operation. Once they had their instruments at the hospital and Vigilato got a sense of his doctor’s playing style, he decided the song to play would be the classic country-western tune “Tennessee Waltz.”
Sloan said he wasn’t nervous heading into a gig with an experienced player, but rather a little cautious.
“You try not to get in their way when you’re with a pro,” he said. “You do your little art and don’t interfere with their nice performance.”
But the doctor said that at times Vigilato would point to him to take the lead.
His self-criticism aside, Vigilato said that the experience was soothing and that he viewed Sloan differently at that moment.
“He was no longer a doctor in my eyes. He was a friend,” he said.
Vigilato said he would like to perform again with Sloan someday but outside of a surgery situation. He would even like to volunteer at Glendale Memorial and perform songs on his guitar for patients.
The desire to jam again was mutual, Sloan said, adding that Vigilato was more than just a patient he operated on — there’s a lot of getting to know each other leading up to an operation.
“Very often, when you have people come into your office, you become a personal friend and a confidant,” he said.