Band Dodges Tragedy — Twice
Last spring, Ian Hesford dropped to the stage from cardiac arrest while playing a show with his band, Telesma.
After 93 minutes of CPR, a hypothermic treatment and stents in his heart, Hesford survived. Knowing CPR saved their friend’s life, band members and dedicated fans took classes.
Telesma vocalist Joanne Juskus didn’t realize how soon she would put that training to the test.
In the middle of the night November 5, Juskus’ boyfriend Adrian Bond suffered the same cardiac arrest her band mate survived months earlier.
Her CPR training kicked in, and with the guidance of a 911 dispatcher, she kept Bond’s heart beating until paramedics arrived.
“I have to say that if I hadn’t gone through this with Ian,” Juskus said, “I wouldn’t have been able to handle going through it with Adrian.”
Telesma band members surrounded Bond’s hospital bed, just as they had months before Hesford’s, not knowing what would be. Band members went to the hospital every day to chant, sing and play music to their unconscious band family member.
“None of us could believe we were having another hospital vigil just months after we had been though it with Ian,” Juskus said.
Both band members survived and are again healthy. But neither has health insurance. After Hesford’s heart attack, band members set up a trust fund and a benefit show to raise money for the medical bills.
They are doing the same for Bond.
Join Telesma along with Swampcandy, Contra, The Corsicans, The Moll Dyers Band, Naked Blue, Jimi Haha (of Jimmie’s Chicken Shack), Joe Karr, McAdoo, Hot Tub Limo and Dean Rosenthal for a 12-hour benefit concert on Jan. 20, 1pm to 1am, at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge in Annapolis. Bid in the silent auction for handcrafted electric guitars, art photography, jewelry, marketing sessions, voice lessons and feng shui consultations.
Telesma goes beyond music to give its audience an “organic experience.” Painters, acrobatics, belly dancers join on the stage when the eight-year-old band performs what Juskus calls “psychedelic tribal world music.”