Brain Wave: Teen Listens to iPod during Surgery
10:37 am, December 18th, 2008, Nicole Martinelli
If British tab The Sun is to be believed, 18-year-old Gavin Brooke stayed awake listening to an iPod as surgeons removed a brain tumor.
The teen had a tumor in a tricky place that surgeons didn’t want to damage, so the boy had to stay awake during surgery.
Brooke was given an anesthetic to numb the pain, but the head surgeon let him hook up his iPod Touch to give him something to do.
What was on the playlist?
The first tune Brook played on his iPod was “Apologize” by Timbaland Featuring One Republic, the rest were garage and R’n’B tracks that kept him occupied during the six-hour surgery. The iPod was plugged into the operating theater’s sound system and the volume was low enough so that Brooke could carry on conversation with the surgeons.
The tumor was removed and Brooke has since recovered.
Via The Sun
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in iPod, iPod Touch | Comment on this article
Its a pretty routine thing to keep neurosurgical patients awake during their surgery so that the surgeon can determine if he’s venturing into territory that affects cognition, speech, hearing, etc.
So, this seems totally reasonable and probably takes place more often than we’d think.
larsitron, on December 18th, 2008 at 11:04 am
With music taste like that, it’s no wonder he had a brain tumor.
I kid, I kid.
Dann, on December 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Surely “Where is my mind” by the Pixies would have been more appropriate?
Chris, on December 19th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Another successful Lobotomy!
Rossco, on December 21st, 2008 at 7:37 pm