Woman plays violin during brain surgery

A woman successfully had a brain tumour removed while playing her violin.

Professional musician Dagmar Turner underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumour.

She started the operation under general anaesthetics, but surgeons woke Dagmar to play her instrument - helping medics to avoid the area of her brain used in playing the violin.

The musician revealed she came up with the suggestion to play during the operation and admitted it means a lot to be able to continue playing the instrument.

She said: "This is my life, this is what I do in my spare time and I enjoy it an awful lot."

Neurosurgeon Professor Keyoumars Ashkan admitted that doctors had to be wary of the "finer details" of playing the violin.

He said: "Length of the string, pressure on the string, all those fast movements moving from one string to another.

"So that is what was unusual for us."

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