A team of doctors operated on a patient's brain while he plays the saxophone during the most delicate stages of the surgery. They wanted to make sure that the operation will not affect his brain function.
The 27-year-old musician, Carlos Aguilera, is a saxophonist from Spain. He underwent a brain surgery to remove a tumor in his brain at the Carlos Haya Hospital in Oct. 15.
He delivered an extraordinary performance to an audience of 16 medics including his neurosurgeons and anesthetists. This method ensured that the operation did not alter his ability to play music, which according to him, is his life.
"Without music I'm nothing," Aguilera told the audience after appearing in public. Aguilera is a member of an orchestra in Malaga and has been playing the saxophone since he was 9 years old.
During the 12-hour operation, Aguilera was asked to play music. As one of the medics inside the operating theater held the musical score for Aguilera to read, he started to play the jazz piece, "Misty."
"We operated on Carlos like this because he's a professional musician and his working life depends on this activity," said Dr. Guillermo Ibanez, a neurosurgeon who performed the operation.
"It was very important that he played in the final stages of the brain tumour removal, as we were very close to the part of the brain that is the listening cortex," Dr. Ibanez added.
Brain surgery is a very delicate procedure. It is done for a wide array of conditions like tumors, blood clots, bleeding, infections and skull fractures, among others.
Like any other operations, brain surgery involves a lot of risks. In some cases, patients may experience problems with speech, memory, balance, and vision after surgery. These problems may occur after the surgery for a short time but unfortunately for others, these may last a lifetime.
In the United States, Roger Frisch, a concert violinist, aided surgeons to locate the part of his brain to implant a device by playing a violin during the surgery. The operation in 2014 helped him overcome tremors caused by abnormal signals sent by the brain section responsible for movement.
Aguilera is thrilled to survive the surgery and to have the tumor in his brain removed.
"Two months ago, I was laid out on a stretcher and now I can say life is waiting for me as if I had been born again," said Aguilera.
