![Mayo Clinic surgical resident, Elvis Francois, understands music's power to go where surgery and medicine cannot. [Image source: WCCO-YouTube]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2020/3/25/660x290/b_502x220x82/mayo-clinic-surgical-resident-elvis-francois-understands-musics-power-to-go-where-surgery-and-medicine-cannot-image-source-wcco-youtube_2426113.jpg "Mayo Clinic surgical resident, Elvis Francois, understands music's power to go where surgery and medicine cannot. [Image source: WCCO-YouTube]")
Elvis Francois is in the healing profession, people might say, but the Minnesota surgical resident in orthopedics is getting attention for healing in another way in these times, without using his hands at all. For several days, the Elvis Francois rendition of John Lennon's “Imagine” has been getting massive airplay and exposure, almost enough to rival that of the composer's original version on film.
Standard blue surgical scrubs and caps replace the pristine white piano and walls of the late former Beatle’s setting, but the heart and spirit are purely echoed by Francois and his musical partner, Dr.
William Robinson.
In a candid March 25 visit with “CBS This Morning," Elvis Francois talked with the self-quarantined correspondent, Vladimir Duthiers, about the power of music to heal even beyond medicine. The two even treated viewers to a virtual duet.
Elvis Francois finds music as natural as breathing
Even though Elvis Francois' mother confirms that she did name her son after Elvis Presley, the silk-toned surgical resident insisted that his singing is completely natural and unrehearsed. “It's almost like breathing. I do it so much that I don't even think about it as something separate from every day,” the singer related in a video insert to a CBS Minnesota feature on March 24.
Francois shares many of his favorite songs on YouTube and social media and is always ready to lift spirits of co-workers or patients with a spontaneous song.
William Robinson is a longtime friend of Elvis Francois, seen accompanying his fellow resident on “Imagine” and other performances. The musical partners were invited guests, on the“Ellen” show in 2018, and found themselves completely enamored with the host and her indescribable blue eyes.
Robinson described how even after surgery, patients are eager to find out when the afternoon reprieve of Ellen DeGeneres’ show comes on, so much so that they push the surgeons out of the way of the TV screen.
He confessed that he often causes the exam to watch before perturbing patients. The surgical wizards clearly keep Ellen among their favorite TV Shows, William and Elvis often offer a song to a patient before probing to confirm a surgical outcome, and the sense of relief is instant.
More than ever, the healing power of music seems essential to survival essential to survival for the millions under self-quarantine and hospitalization through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The frontline heroes comprising the overburdened medical staff need moments of meditation and calm like never before, and Elvis Francois simply hopes to bring an interlude of spiritual relief.
The only way is ‘together’ for Elvis Francois and the rest of us
“The only way we get through this is if 7 billion of us say ‘we are here together’” Elvis Francois declares. The resident not only refers to the collective struggle of the global pandemic, but also to the necessity of celebrating any moments of joy rising from the experience. Music has always been one of those joys for the surgeon and singer. He was called to medicine from the age of five and grew up singing in church and in a cappella group through his youth.
Almost any hum can turn into a command performance on a shift for Elvis Francois. Patients in hospital gowns and staff in white coats follow the sound of his voice.
“There's a lot of fear and anxiety,” the seasoned resident confirmed, feeling it from both his patients and the professionals combating the illness. He hopes to use his talent to “bring things to ease,” for those who listen.
“Medicine goes only so far and surgery only goes so far,” Elvis Francois relates. “Music goes places that medicine can’t go.”
He continues by saying that seeing the big and small efforts that “save a person’s life” and keep humanity connected are reasons “I can’t ever lose hope.”
As much as Elvis cherishes music and affirms it as a positive force in healing, he has no plans to put down his scalpel and grab a microphone stand as a career.
His personal calling to medicine is firm.
A new guitarist and a potential patient for Dr. Elvis Francois
Elvis Francois collaborates with a variety of friends and colleagues in his musical performances. He has sung to guitar, piano, and other instruments as part of his accompaniment, including full choirs, this morning, viewers, at last, got to hear and see Vladimir Duthiers do the honors on guitar as Francois performed a lovely acoustic “Imagine.”
Regular viewers to “CBS This Morning” will recall that after a recent feature profile of sibling cellists, Taran and Calliope Tien, and their touching performance for a neighbor under quarantine, Gayle King pleaded with Duthiers to break out into a performance on one of the guitars in the collection of the journalist.
He graciously declined, but this morning, the mood was perfect for sharing the peace and love that only music can bring.
Gayle King was watching and listening because she certainly observed several admirable qualities in Dr. Elvis Francois. After Vladimir Duthiers exclaimed “Nice!” at the close of the rendition, the cameras went to Gayle, who had her own list pertaining to the doctor.
“Voice, career, biceps—what doesn't he have?” the co-anchor inquired. “I think I'm feeling a little faint…” King playfully exaggerated.
Dr. Elvis Francois may not be accepting patients just yet, but perhaps a serenade could be arranged.
