A MUSICIAN plays the violin — while surgeons remove a tumour from her brain.
Dagmar Turner’s skull was opened under anaesthetic before she came round to play at King’s College Hospital in London.
Dagmar, 53, from the Isle of Wight, said: “The violin is my passion.”
She explained to her surgeon – who holds a degree in music and is an accomplished pianist – how she was worried she’s lose her skill if she had surgery.
Prof Ashkan and the neurosurgical team at King’s devised a plan and spent two hours carefully mapping her brain to identify areas that were active when she played the violin.
They also discussed the idea of waking Dagmar mid-procedure so she could play to ensure the surgeons did not damage any crucial areas of the brain that controlled her delicate hand movements.
With her agreement, a team of surgeons, anaesthetists and therapists went on to meticulously plan the procedure.
Prof Ashkan said: “We knew how important the violin is to Dagmar so it was vital that we preserved function in the delicate areas of her brain that allowed her to play.
“We managed to remove over 90 percent of the tumour, including all the areas suspicious of aggressive activity, while retaining full function in her left hand.”
The entire operation took six hours and Dagmar played violin for around half of it.
Three days after the procedure Dagmar was well enough to go home to her husband and son.