The making of Texas Children’s Hospital’s viral ‘Fight Song’ video
For the past year, members of the Texas Children’s Hospital staff have been fighting hard not only for their patients’ health, but also their fun. To that end, a group of physical therapists at Texas Children’s had the idea to make a music video for their patients.
Lauren Martin, a Texas Children’s physical therapist, started thinking about creating a hospital-wide video of the patients about a year ago, but it was not until she heard Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” that she went into action. With the help of physical therapist Danielle Cousins, child life specialist Alyssa DeMoss, many other staff members at Texas Children’s and several of their patients, their version of “Fight Song” came to life.
“I was on the way home from work and every lyric hits home,” said Martin. “You can relate it to any kid here, just the environment of the hospital, all of the kids we see fighting every day.”
Cousins agreed that “Fight Song” was the perfect choice.
“Lyrics that mean something in the song mean something different here,” said Cousins. “The part where she says, “you may only have one match”–we are thinking about our bone-marrow transplant kids or our heart transplant kids. She means that you literally have one match, but we think, ‘You have A match.’”
Texas Children’s wanted to make sure the children were the focal point of the video and to give them something to get excited about.
“We worked really hard to get all of the floors and as many patients as we could involved because we wanted to show different patients with different diseases and challenges throughout the hospital, but mostly we wanted our video to be focused on the kids and be for them,” said Cousins.
Since its opening, Texas Children’s has treated over one million children who are fighting different diseases and battles.
Avery, one of the patients featured in the video, is a 12-year-old who has been fighting Leukemia for the past year at Texas Children’s. This song is very special for her because on her way to treatment she likes to listen “Fight Song.”
“I like how it tells you to keep fighting and keep pushing and never give up no matter what you’re going through,” said Avery.
Another goal for the video was to bring attention to what is going on in the hospital and to raise awareness about pediatric diseases.
“A lot of people don’t like to think of things like pediatric cancer and other lifelong diseases because they are sad, so they don’t get awareness and media attention, but I think it is important that people see this side of it,” said Cousins.
More than anything, Texas Children’s staff wanted to give their patients something fun and different that they can be involved in and can take home with them or watch when they are in treatment.
“It is an honor to get to work with these kids every day,” said DeMoss. “We get to learn from them and see their joy which makes our lives happier, but to share that with others outside the hospital is important to us.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k_szst_OBg
