Singing For Your Life: How Belting Out Tunes Can Help You Survive Brain Surgery
One after another, the sound of some of Taylor Swift’s greatest hits are seeping out of the operating room. It’s a pretty weird thing to hear in a hospital: do the surgeons in this place have a lax attitude while they’re working? Well, in actual fact, the renditions of these songs are serving a vital purpose. A woman is in surgery right now, and her brain is being operated on — but she’s wide awake and singing her favorite songs while it’s happening! And this is a great sign.
A tough journey
The person in the operating theater singing Swift numbers that day was Selena Campione, and her journey to get to that point had been a tough one. A teacher in her mid-30s, Selena had gone through her life without any major health scares. But that suddenly changed when one side of her body started to feel numb and tingly.
It was her right side that felt weird, and she naturally sought medical advice. That kickstarted a journey that saw her sent from one doctor to another, hoping for answers that never came. To begin with, nobody could say what was wrong with her.
“Getting worse and worse”
The situation was a scary one. A previously healthy young woman had suddenly succumbed to a mysterious condition that interfered with her life — and nobody seemed able to help her. Selena was prescribed a bunch of different medications by different doctors, but nothing seemed to work.
And, to make matters even more terrifying, her condition wasn’t static. At the end of March 2024 Selena spoke to Today about what had happened to her, noting, “Over a course of time, it kept getting worse and worse.”
“Lots of unknowns”
Selena visited several neurologists during this time. Her blood was tested for different illnesses, and she underwent repeated MRI examinations, yet still nobody could say what was wrong with her. This frustrating process went on for several months. “I was being led down different paths and different treatments,” Selena told Today, “with lots of unknowns.”
Anyone who’s ever been in a similar position, of knowing something was wrong with them, but without ever being told what it was, will appreciate the terrible position Selena was in. It was a grueling time.
Deteriorating condition
And all the while, Selena’s condition continued to deteriorate. “My face would get so swollen it would get stuck and I wouldn’t be able to speak,” she explained, “then I couldn’t feel anything on the right side of my body, so I wasn’t able to walk sometimes or use my right arm.”
On top of that, her blood pressure and heart rate would go through periods of being dangerously high. These episodes were so bad that she was forced to go to hospital more than once.