If you ask 12-year-old Henry Hinson how long he's been a Taylor Swift fan, he'll tell you “since the womb.” And his mom, Erin Hinson, will attest to the truth.
“When he was a baby, I would wear headphones on my stomach and listen to 'Fearless' and 'Speak Now,'” Hinson tells TODAY.com.
When Henry was 20 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with spina bifida, a condition in which the spine does not form properly. Mayo Clinic. To cope with stress, Hinson sang “Viva” at the top of her lungs and, she said, felt Henry dancing inside her.
More than a decade later, this love for Swift helped Henry get through many of the most difficult moments of his young life.
A TikTok video of hospital staff surprising a young superfan with a Swift song especially for him has gone viral. Henry's child life specialist and the team of nurses at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana serenaded him with a version of “The life of a dancerreimagined as “The Life of Henry”.
“You were the soul of 9 West and brought so much joy to all of us, all of our patients and our other families, so we have a little surprise for you,” one employee says in the video.
Some eagle-eyed swifts may recognize Henry from his first viral moment in 2024, when hehalloween costume caught the attention of Swift's team, which led to an invitation to the Eras Tour, where he and his mom met Swift's mother, Andrea Swift.
The idea for the special song came from Maddie Rodriguez, Henry's certified child life specialist, who immediately became friends with him when they first met.
“The first thing he said to me was, 'Are you Swifty?' which obviously I am,” Rodriguez told TODAY.com. “So it made our relationship so natural and gave us something to talk about.”
When Henry's mom told hospital staff they had to miss a planned house party to watch the “Eras Tour” documentary because of his hospitalization, Rodriguez knew she had to do something special for him.
“It's just part of being a child life specialist: trying to bring joy to our children during really difficult times and give them these personalized moments,” she says.
With Hinson's help, the hospital staff threw Henry a day-long party, where she bought cupcakes, special decorations and giant friendship bracelets to share with the other young Swifties at the hospital.
Swift's music was played in his room throughout the day, and Henry invited employees when their favorite songs were played. His doctors also joined us, wearing heart-shaped glasses and dancing. “He had a really great day,” Hinson said.
The highlight of the evening was the performance of “The Life of Henry.” Featuring the backing track of the album's title track, the team set about creating custom lyrics celebrating everything that makes Henry special.
“We've been working with him for the last three weeks and getting to know who he is as Henry first, because he's Henry and not a patient,” Rodriguez explains. “I just thought about all his favorite things.”
Henry's reaction? “I was in shock, I was crying and laughing,” he tells TODAY.com. His favorite part of the song was “when they said I like Swig and 67“
“I'm not sure they'll ever understand the impact it had on Henry and me,” Hinson says. “Because that day they weren't just offering medical care. They weren't just doing their jobs. They were seeing Henry“
The viral performance comes at a particularly difficult time for Henry, who has undergone 25 surgeries related to his condition. The week before Thanksgiving, Henry was hospitalized after going into septic shock, requiring surgery and a stay on a ventilator as his body fought the infection.
“His courage, in my opinion, is unparalleled,” Hinson says, her voice sounding emotional. “He faces a lot of really big and scary things.”
For Henry, Swift's music is more than just entertainment, it's a lifeline in scary moments.
“When he's scared, when he has to go for a CT scan or he's going into surgery again, all someone has to do is say, 'Well, tell me about the time you were on the Eras Tour,' and he's instantly transported to this safe and secure place that he understands. It just makes his days in this hospital a little easier,” she says.
Henry now watches performance videos regularly and his mom catches him singing his own version of the song.
She tells both her sons – Henry and his 15-year-old brother Oliver – that “joy is a choice we make every day.”
“In difficult times, it's especially important that we choose joy, look for joy, because that's what keeps us going. And so Henry exudes it. He literally exudes joy,” she says.
The viral attention inspired Henry and his family to pay tribute. When Hinson told Henry that the TikTok video had started making money through the creator fund, “he jumped at the chance and said, 'Mom, I think we should donate it back to the hospital. You know, they're the reason we're getting it,'” she recalled.
Both Henry and his brother Oliver asked their mom to make an Amazon wish list for the child life team at Riley instead of getting gifts for themselves for the holidays this year.
“They both said, 'Mom, we have enough stuff,'” Hinson says. The public's wish list includes products such as Lip Smackers, which child life specialists use to coat the inside of anesthesia masks so children smell like strawberries or chocolate instead of a sterile operating room.
“Child life specialists often work on a very tight budget, but the work they do is incredibly important,” explains Hinson. “I’m just incredibly grateful that there’s work that can be seen online that is truly about love for critically ill children.”
