Grateful patient David Yang, who is also the Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (NCMF) and a festival musician, orchestrated a creative tribute to Anna Jaques Hospital (AJH) in August, as an expression of thanks for the extraordinary care he received while a patient here last December.
As a part of its “Summer Reimagined Concert Series,” the NCMF ensemble performed a special live-streamed concert in an empty St. Paul’s Church on Saturday, August 15th. “The concert was a fundraiser for the good doctors, nurses, and staff at Anna Jaques who give so much and, these days, put themselves on the line every time they suit up for work.” Although the concert was free, participants were encouraged to make an online donation to the AJH Emergency Room. Click here to watch the full concert.
The following day, David and his ensemble partners surprised AJH employees and visitors with a safe and socially distant pop-up concert in the hospital lobby. There, he publicly thanked the AJH staff members for their compassionate professionalism and the important role they played in his personal story…
AJH is grateful to David, the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, and their many patrons, for their inspirational support and musical encouragement of our staff.
David's Story...
It was late last year that David boarded the Amtrak in Philadelphia on route to Boston for the 2019 NCMF Winter Baroque concert. While traveling, David experienced a recurring pain that flared up but subsided by the time he reached South Station.
The pain returned in force the next day, cancelling a six-hour rehearsal and putting the concert at risk. Jane Niebling, Co-Founder of NCMF, drove David to the AJH Emergency Department (ED).
David shared: “The doctors, nurses, and hospital staff in the ED and Gerrish Family Fast Track were exceptionally kind to me. After a few hours and a barrage of tests the doctor informed me I had a kidney stone. She then looked at me and said ‘we also found something else…’”
Cancer was not a stranger to David’s family, so it wasn’t totally unexpected when they found a “mass” in David’s kidney. Despite the diagnosis, he played the concert that night but rushed back to Philadelphia immediately afterwards, with a referral provided by a local urologist, for a physician at the University of Pennsylvania.
Eight months post-surgery, David has the all-clear; except for some battle scars, he’s back to doing intervals on his bike and practicing music for hours a day.