Christian Nolen, a man who played guitar during his brain surgery, recently shared his unique experience of being awake while undergoing the procedure.
Brain surgery is no small feat, and it's already challenging enough to go through it, let alone being conscious during the operation.
However, staying awake during certain brain surgeries, like tumor removals, isn't unusual.
Nolen faced the necessity of surgery when a tumor was discovered in the right frontal lobe of his brain, affecting his dexterity.
Just ten days after the tumor's discovery, he underwent surgery at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The neurological team there asked him to play the guitar during the surgery.
This would help them monitor and preserve his manual dexterity while removing as much of the tumor as possible.
This request made sense as Nolen, an avid guitar player since he was 13, had a talent they could use to their advantage.
Dr. Ricardo Komotar, director of the brain tumor program at Sylvester, explained to Fox News Digital the rationale behind this decision:
"When a tumor is involving or near a critical part of the brain — something that controls the ability to speak or understand language or move — we want to do the surgery awake to continually monitor the patient, so you know if you start to violate normal brain functions."
Dr. Komotar mentioned there was 'no better way' to monitor Nolen's dexterity than having him play the guitar.
Initially, Nolen found the idea surreal.
"I’d only really heard of procedures of that nature being done in shows and movies," he told Fox News Digital.
Nonetheless, Nolen felt he 'couldn't pass up' the opportunity and agreed to the team's request.
During the surgery, Nolen was initially put to sleep, and then woken up midway.
Adapting to his unusual situation, he was given a guitar.
Nolen described the surreal moment: "Upon awakening, it was quite overwhelming to see everything around me and to fight the natural reaction to sit up."
He then played songs by Deftones and System of a Down, allowing the doctors to observe his hand function.
During the surgery, Nolen commented: "This is wild."
Dr. Komotar later shared that they noticed a decline in Nolen's hand function towards the end of the surgery, which was crucial in determining the tumor's boundaries and its relation to the brain area controlling hand movement.
"As we were finishing the case at the very back of the tumor, we noticed that his hand function started to decline."
"The tumor was touching and interfacing with the part of the brain that controls hand movement. Fortunately, we were able to remove the entire tumor and not injure his hand."
Fortunately, the surgery was successful, with the entire tumor removed without damaging his hand function.
Nolen is now focusing on his recovery and awaiting pathology results. His post-surgery treatment plan likely includes six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy.
