Teen sings through brain surgery to save musical talent. Watch video

Kira Laconetti, a performer for most of her life, noticed some difficulty while singing or listening to music about four years ago. “It was as if a light switched off in my brain,” she told Associated Press. “Suddenly I was tone deaf – I couldn’t process the words in time with the music and I couldn’t sing.” She would even slur and stutter on words.

An incredible video of a 19-year-old singing through her brain surgery has been shared online. The self-taught singer had to undergo surgery after a marble-sized mass was discovered on her brain. Doctors asked the teen to sing during her awake surgery so that they could ensure her musical talent remained intact.

An incredible video of a 19-year-old singing through her brain surgery has been shared online. The self-taught singer had to undergo surgery after a marble-sized mass was discovered on her brain.(Seattle Children’s Hospital)

Kira Laconetti, a performer for most of her life, noticed some difficulty while singing or listening to music about four years ago. “It was as if a light switched off in my brain,” she told Associated Press. “Suddenly I was tone deaf – I couldn’t process the words in time with the music and I couldn’t sing.” She would even slur and stutter on words.

 

As her conditioned worsened, Laconetti was rushed to Seattle Children’s Hospital for an MRI scan and that’s when doctors discovered the mass in the right temporal lobe of her brain. The benign tumour was causing musicogenic epilepsy – a condition in which certain types of music or even frequencies of pitch trigger seizures.

“In a sort of twisted joke from the universe, the tumor was right inside the area of my brain that controls my hearing and singing ability,” said Laconetti.

Since singing and acting is so important for Laconetti, Dr Jason Hauptman, her lead surgeon, decided to perform an “awake craniotomy” on the teen on September 4.

The video shows Laconetti awake during her surgery, completing different musical tasks. Her surgery was a success and the video also shows her playing her guitar post surgery. She has since been recovering well.

“Our focus was not only on taking care of the tumor but making her life better,” said Dr Hauptman. “We wanted to preserve the things she cares about like her passion for pursuing a career in musical theater.”

Now, with the surgery successful, Laconetti can’t wait to perform on stage again.