Danny Carroll was lying in the back of an ambulance in August of 2018. He was having a heart attack at age 63. At that moment, he heard a voice.
“Did you get this gentleman’s Manitoba Health Card number?” it asked.
Then Carroll heard another voice in reply.
“No.”
It finally occurred to Carroll that the two paramedics in the ambulance were about him, as they rushed him to St. Boniface Hospital. He weakly lifted his arm – IV tubes, wires and all – reached into his front pocket for his wallet, and fished out his Manitoba Health Card.
“Here y’go,” he croaked.
“Gee! Thank you, sir,” replied one of the paramedics.
“Then I went back to having my heart attack,” recalled Carroll, six years later. “I realized then that I would be OK, and that I could place my trust in these people. But I had to ask them for my card back, as I remember,” he laughed.
Based in Winnipeg, Carroll is a pianist and composer best known for his work in local musicals and theatre productions, including those of Rainbow Stage and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. He has also created soundscapes for film. His debut album, Keys for Transformation, was released in September of 2023.
On February 6, as part of Heart Month celebrations at St. B, Carroll presented a pair of free public piano recitals in the Hospital’s on-site Galerie Buhler Gallery.
“Music helps us to transform our grief, struggles, fear, and loss into the healing that we need; that the world needs,” he said to introduce his song “Healing”.
Carroll played in the gallery surrounded by images from artist Charles Romero Venzon’s Cardially yours, exhibition on the Hospital’s Cardiac Sciences program. Between songs, he provided comments on his own cardiac care experience at St. B.
“My first thought in the ambulance that day in 2018 was, ‘I am going to die.’ Then I thought, ‘No, I am going to have a near-death experience, but I will come back from it. I’m going to make it, and I will tell everyone about it,’” he said.
“My life was saved at St. Boniface Hospital. I am so grateful to this place, and the people here who work so hard.”
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