Recently, reality television helped a man in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh stay awake during brain surgery. Doctors at a private hospital in the state’s Guntur district conducted a rare and critical open-brain surgery on a man, in which the patient had to be kept awake.
According to multiple Indian news reports, as the doctors performed the surgery on the 33-year-old patient named Vara Prasad, he watched reality TV show Bigg Boss, the Indian adaptation of the popular Dutch-British show Big Brother, and the 2009 Hollywood sci-fi movie Avatar.
“While three surgeons removed a recurrent glioma (a type of tumor) in the left premotor area abutting the mortal cortex [which is the key brain structure involved in the acquisition and performance of skilled movement of muscles]", the man enjoyed the show followed by the movie on a laptop.
While further details of the surgery are not specified, pictures of the operation were shared on social media channels, with many users wondering how this was possible.
However, In a similar incident, in January, Dagmar Turner, a professional violinist who was undergoing an operation at a London hospital to have a tumour removed from her brain, played her violin while undergoing a critical brain procedure.
On January 31, Turner was also undergoing an open-brain surgery. But in the middle of the procedure, she was bought out of anesthesia to play the instrument. She played the instrument to ensure that her crucial hand movements and coordination kills were not impaired by surgery.
News website ABC reported that the tumour was successfully removed from her right frontal lobe, near an area that controls the fine movements in her left hand, as per a press release from the hospital.
