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33-year-old Anthony Kulkamp from Brazil recently had an operation to remove a tumor from his brain. Not only did he stay awake during the surgery, but Kulkamp impressively played his favorite Beatles song “Yesterday.”
He found out about the tumor just 15 days after his son was born. When he started stuttering and couldn’t remember the brand of his car, he went to go get checked at the hospital.
It’s incredible Kulkamp remembered lyrics to the Beatles song and even the right chords to play. What’s even more incredible is that he “played six songs at certain times (during brain surgery),” he told The Telegraph.
“My right hand was a bit weaker because that was the side that they were operating on. So I stopped and rested. I was interspersing songs and talking with them.” Wow.
Keeping a patient conscious during brain surgery is not uncommon. While awake, neurosurgeons can undergo cerebral monitoring.
Kulkamp’s surgeon, Dr. Jean Abreu Machado expressed: “By keeping the patient awake during surgery, these areas can be monitored in real time. A kind of mapping of important areas can be done. It really is a great challenge for the whole surgery team, including the anaesthetist. At this point, the anaesthetist’s challenge begins: to keep the patient awake and pain-free.”
Photo via Freebird/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)