ROYAL OAK, Mich. – March is Child Life Month, a time dedicated to celebrating the professionals who make life a little easier for kids in the hospital. We visited Corewell Health in Royal Oak to see the impact of music therapist Brandon Banas, who spends the majority of his time in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
He introduced him to his “little buddy,” as he calls him, Carson Jamo. The three-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia in June of 2025.
Once a week, he and his family drop by so that his chemotherapy port can get changed.
Mom Casey said Carson, who donned a Detroit Tigers t-shirt went to his first game was last summer. It “was the strike out cancer game but we didn’t know he was going to be diagnosed at that point,” said Jamo.
Carson has spent a lot of time in the hospital since then. Casey says Brandon Banas has “made the journey a little brighter and easier.”
“When I started my music therapy career, I was so scared because I thought I hold so much responsibility that people don’t see,” said Banas. But he leaned in and helps kids, like Carson get through the most difficult of situations.
He finds that when he brings out his bag of musical instruments, “from there they almost start to relax into themselves, more bubbly, less scared.”
“Carson has brought me so much joy, and helped me rediscover my love for what I do every day, too -- just seeing the impact he and his family have had on me makes me feel like I’ve made an impact on them,” said Banas.
The feeling is mutual. “It’s been nice to have a creative outlet, it’s something he looks forward to when you come here to do things that aren’t that enjoyable for him,” said Jamo. She also enjoys that Carson’s 7-year-old brother, Connor, gets to play along too.
“As the big brother of a child going through cancer, it can be overwhelming or you can feel like you’re kind of forgotten about,” she went on to say the entire family feels supported. “It’s great when Connors here the child life team makes him feel included.”
Carson should be finished with chemotherapy treatment by September. His mom hopes one of the first things they’ll do is get Carson and his brother Connor back to Comerica Park. She says they’d like to make the Strike Out Cancer game, as it would be a full circle moment.