It's not every day you hear a live concert inside a hospital waiting room. But for the past few weeks, the sound of a violin have become a common occurrence at La Rabida Children's Hospital in Chicago, thanks to 10-year-old Nathan Dow from Palatine.
"I enjoy playing my violin for other people. It brings joy to their day," said Nathan, who's been playing the violin since he was 5 years old.
Nathan is passionate about music. But his performances aren't just entertaining families in the waiting room at La Rabida, they're also tugging at the heartstrings of the littlest patients staying the hospital -- something Nathan himself is intimately familiar with.
Read More: ‘Miracle' Baby from Chicago's Western Suburbs Turns 3
"Nathan is one of our patients here," said Megan Douglas, Nathan's Physical Therapist at La Rabida. "He came here for intensive rehab and he gets three hours of therapy a day,"
Nov. 4th, Nathan had major hip surgery to resolve an issue that came with his cerebral palsy diagnosis. Following the procedure, Nathan was put in a full body cast for nearly a month, with strict instructions to either lay on his stomach or or stand only, according to his mom.
But now, almost two months later, Nathan has made tremendous progress.
Local
"Now he’s standing on his own," said Douglas. "He’s playing basketball and he’s walking."
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
He's also playing the violin again, which was very important, since Nathan had to prepare for an upcoming holiday concert with the Betty Haag Academy of Music in Arlington Heights.
As soon as he started feeling better, Nathan's violin practice sessions went from his hospital bed, to other rooms in the hospital.
"He was able to walk around both units and play outside each of the kid's rooms who wanted to hear some holiday songs," said Charlene Dow, Nathan's mom. "It’s just fun for him to be able to do that."
Nathan was able to thrive and stay positive through his music, while bringing joy to other patients at the same time.
"For a lot of the babies, this was the first introduction to music," said Douglas. "It’s nice for him to play his holiday songs and bring some holiday cheer here."
Those practice sessions were well worth it. Nathan was discharged from La Rabida Hospital on Thursday, just in time to perform at this show three days later.
And while he was really looking forward to performing in front of large audiences again, Nathan says he was mostly excited to reunite with his whole family.
"I'm really excited to see my siblings again," said Nathan, who is one of four siblings.
"We adopted Nathan from China," Charlene said. "He was born in February 2012 and he was a two-pound preemie."
"He’s a special guy," Charlene continued, "... God has been in his life from the very beginning."
