Family receives recording of baby's heartbeat before and after life-saving transplant
Cleveland Clinic News Service | 216.444.0141
We’re available to shoot custom interviews & b-roll for media outlets upon request.
CCNS health and medical content is consumer-friendly, professional broadcast quality (available in HD), and available to media outlets each day.
images: 0
video: 0
audio: 0
text: 0
When you lose someone close, many treasure photographs, movies and memories. Cleveland Clinic’s Arts and Medicine Institute has been giving families a unique keepsake: the sound of their loved one’s heartbeat as music.
To record the heartbeat, Music Therapist Christine Bomberger uses a special stethoscope. It’s cut so only the chest piece and a couple of inches of tubing remain. A lapel microphone is then inserted into the tubing, which picks up the sound that comes into the chest piece and is then transferred onto a program on an iPad.
Christine then edits and loops the heartbeat, setting it to music, which families can select, or she adds soft guitar music along with the tempo of the heartbeat.
So far, Christine has completed four records. Three were for the families of patients who were at the end of their life.
“Sometimes, patients are really young,” says Christine. “Perhaps they haven’t had the time to go home, make memories and take photographs. The families are so grateful for this gift — allowing them to celebrate their legacy and cherish this memory.”
The third recording wasn’t for a patient at the end of his life, but for baby Nikolas, who received a heart transplant, and is doing well.
Christine recorded the baby’s original heart. Fast forward a few months after a successful surgery, and she recorded the transplanted heart. Both recordings were placed on a CD and gifted to the family.
“I couldn’t believe the heart recordings; they were beautiful,” says Karina, Nikolas’s mother. “You can hear a big difference between pre and post-transplant recordings. When Nikolas grows up, I’ll let him listen to his heartbeat, and I’m sure he’ll be amazed.”
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. Cleveland Clinic is consistently recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world for its expertise and care. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 81,000 employees worldwide are more than 5,743 salaried physicians and researchers, and 20,160 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,690-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 23 hospitals, 276 outpatient facilities, including locations in northeast Ohio; Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2023, there were 13.7 million outpatient encounters, 323,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 301,000 surgeries and procedures throughout Cleveland Clinic’s health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 132 countries. Visit us at clevelandclinic.org. Follow us at twitter.com/CleClinicNews. News and resources available at newsroom.clevelandclinic.org.
Editor’s Note: Cleveland Clinic News Service is available to provide broadcast-quality interviews and B-roll upon request.
