Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/arenkbife6dv3pt/VRP60898.mp4?dl=0
This is the amazing moment a woman played the flute while she was having brain surgery.
April Rodriguez Oliveros, 32, was diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent an awake craniotomy procedure to remove it in Quezon City, the Philippines on August 13.
To monitor her motor and speech functions during the surgery, doctors made her play the instrument as well as talk and count during the process.
Footage shows the patient playing a scale on the flute as surgeons removed the mass from her head at the East Avenue Medical Centre.
The operation was a success and April, who worked as a high school teacher, is now recovering and even showing off her flute-playing skills post-surgery.
She said she didn’t feel any pain while the surgeons were cutting out the tumour.
April said: ‘It was like they were just fiddling around in my head.
‘The neurologists talked to me and made jokes throughout the operation. I didn’t feel like I needed to be scared. I am glad it was a success.’
April’s anesthesiologist Dr Tata Abalajon said making the patient play the flute during the procedure reduced the risks as they were able to check vital parts involved in motor and speech functions.
She said: ‘The good thing about awake craniotomy is that we allow the surgeon to remove the brain tumour without damaging the patient’s brain, as they’re awake.
‘We monitor her motor [function], we made her play the flute. Her speech, we made her talk.’
There are currently only three hospitals in the Philippines that offer awake craniotomy, including the East Medical Avenue Center.
Abalajon said there was a limited number of surgeons who could perform the operation as the procedure ‘requires plenty of courage and trust among staff’.