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A New Jersey woman belted out Taylor Swift‘s hits while undergoing brain surgery. On January 31, Selena Campione went through the procedure of awake craniotomy after being diagnosed with low-grade glioma. Though the 36-year-old was frightened about being awake during brain surgery, she knew that her health wasn’t getting any better. Campione told Fox News that since 2023, she started getting peculiar symptoms, such as tingling and numbness on the right side of her body.
“I couldn’t use my right arm, the right side of my face would swell up, and I would have trouble talking,” Campione told the outlet, recalling her health scare. She continued, “I would be stuck, almost. My right leg – I wouldn’t even feel it. I wouldn’t have feeling in my foot. Part of my skin would turn purple. I wouldn’t feel anything at all.”
The mother-of-two said that as her symptoms kept “growing,” she consulted various expert doctors, including neurologists and MRI specialists. After prolonged hospital stays, Campione was prescribed eight medications, but to no avail.
It wasn’t until she met with Dr. Nitesh Patel that the true nature of her illness was diagnosed. Patel is a neurosurgeon and co-director of the Neurosurgical Oncology program at Hackensack Meridian Health at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
When Dr. Patel informed Campione that she had to be awake as doctors performed brain surgery to remove the tumour, she said, “I was scared out of my mind.” The doctor told the outlet that it is pertinent to keep the patient awake during such types of surgery to avoid any “permanent damage.”
Patel noted that since Campione would be numbed from the top of her head to her eyebrows and ears, she could “talk and repeat things.” “And while we’re stimulating the brain, if she has any errors in those actions, we know that’s a critical area,” he added.
“We could do it the boring way … or we can do it a bit more of an exciting way, and I found singing is particularly very helpful,” Patel explained. Since both, Campione and Patel enjoy listening to Swift’s songs, he noted that in case she made a mistake while singing, he would be able to pick it up.
Though Campione couldn’t remember what songs she belted out during the surgery, she admitted that she “vaguely” remembered hearing Shake It Off. Following the successful surgery, Patel revealed that she sang several other hits by Swift, including 22, Bad Blood, and You Need to Calm Down. “Basically, she did the Eras Tour for us,” he added.
