<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><item href="/magazine/winter-2009/better-minds-through-music.html" dsn="news"><pubDate/><title>Better Minds Through Music</title><excerpt>In 2007, one of our violin students nearly died in a car accident and lay in a coma for several weeks. Doctors told the family there was little hope of recovery. He did regain consciousness, however, and while he had limited speech, he couldn’t form cogent thoughts or recognize simple objects. Case workers predicted months or years of therapy and doubted he’d recover his intellectual capabilities.</excerpt><author/><image>
            
            <img src="http://blogs.westmont.edu/magazine/files/2009/03/violin-playing1.jpg" alt="Child playing violin"/>
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