Songs for superheroes

"Even heroes have the right to bleed."

Lyrics from Five for Fighting's song, "Superman."

"It's not easy to be me."

The song takes on a whole new meaning when these words are sung by emergency department workers whose entire lives are dedicated to saving lives. Interspersed with images of exhausted health care workers in face masks and scrubs, it gives people pause.

"In our daily work routine, it's been really hard," Kootenai Health lab assistant Carli Osika said Friday. "Everybody’s gone through staffing issues and having more patients than we have staff.

"We have to support each other," she said. "When somebody else is having a rough day, we have to support each other and be there for each other."

Osika is one of several hospital employees who participated in an affecting tribute to health care workers. A YouTube music video, "ER coworkers cover Superman (It's Not Easy)," highlights the natural voices and talents of medical staff whose voices have so long been muffled by masks.

The concept for the video, found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1T9BkJzp54&feature=youtu.be, came from the heart of Lane Sumner, a longtime local musician and music instructor who now works as a Kootenai Health guest services associate. He said he had this idea "floating around in my head for weeks."

Even though he's not medical staff, he wanted to contribute something to show appreciation and lift up those around him.

"Most of those people I’d never heard sing before, so I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he said, smiling beneath his mask. “It came out way better than I anticipated."

Sumner discovered the talent of the ER workers when one of them took guitar lessons from him and let him in on the secret that a number of them could sing.

“I spent my whole career taking people and making them sound good at music,” Sumner said. "This is just an extension of what I spent 30 years doing."

Sumner played all the musical parts on the video, which was shot in his North Idaho studio. He also spent countless hours putting it all together. When his computer program almost failed, one of his former students, Jimmy Magnuson, contributed his talent to master the music and prepare it for the video session.

"Once I heard this song, I was like, 'Oh my God, this needs to get out to people.' When I was mastering it, I couldn't stop crying," Magnuson said. "I cry because they're my heroes."

Magnuson shared that he has suffered from alcoholism and depression through the years, and the workers at Kootenai Health, including Sumner, have always provided encouragement with no judgment when he has found himself in their care.

"It makes me feel amazing," he said. "I’m so blessed it could come together and I could help get that message out there."

A first video covering Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" was released Aug. 31 and had thousands of views in the first week. It's now beyond 11,500 views.

"They did such an amazing job,” Kootenai Health communications specialist Andrea Nagel said. "It’s always fun to see your coworkers' hidden talents. The first video they did was really popular and really helped to boost morale, especially in the emergency department. It’s a good morale booster and puts a smile on people’s faces."

Every Friday, Sumner and his guest services colleague Lorena Brewer perform during the lunch hour in the cafeteria as The Lorena and Lane Trio — music for people who are bad at math. Sumner plays guitar and Brewer plays the flute and the bass flute. They started performing weekly just after the pandemic shut down everything.

“When COVID started, all the live music stopped, so after a month or so, I made a suggestion to our manager and said, 'How about Lane and I play music?’” Brewer said. "We had nurses coming up in tears. They’d say, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t heard music for a while.'"

They play songs including the Beatles' "Hey Jude," Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers.

"I love the live music," Kootenai Café employee Tiffany Schultz said. "I think it gives everyone in the hospital — the workers, the patients and the visitors — it gives them a little ray of sunshine, a ray of hope that it’s not really all that bad."

Brewer said it's all a labor of love.

"All of this is done from the heart," she said.

As for the videos, Sumner said, "I honestly only did it for my coworkers."

"The fact that someone outside of our little group here wanted to watch them is remarkable to me," he said.