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Kira Iaconetti's passion is to sing and perform on stage. The 19-year-old self-taught musician spent all her youth performing in plays and musicals until about four years ago, when she began to have a strange reaction. whenever she sang or listened to music.
"It was like a light switch was off in my brain," Iaconetti said in an interview with Seattle Children's Hospital. "Suddenly, I became deaf, I could not process the words in tune with the music and I could not sing."
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Iaconetti would have these "episodes" of two minutes, then return to normal – although strangely exhausted. Still, she was not worried about events until their frequency increased.
Kira Iaconetti
Kira Iaconetti
"Forcing me to sing after one of these problems was extremely difficult," she said. "I would become incoherent, scrambling and stammering my words."
Iaconetti and her mother went to Seattle Children's Hospital, where a neurologist told her that the episodes were a type of crisis that only occurred when her brain was exposed to music. An MRI showed that there was a calcified tumor that had pushed her auditory cortex upwards, causing convulsive seizures, "in a kind of twisted joke of the universe," she said. .
"Her tumor was discovered because of a very unusual type of epilepsy that she had called musicogenic epilepsy," said Dr. Jason Hauptman, neurosurgeon at the hospital. . "These fits are triggered by listening to music or singing, which is an unfortunate problem for Kira since she is an interpreter who likes to sing."
Kira's tumor, left, and areas of his brain that illuminate with music, right
Seattle children
In collaboration with Iaconetti and her physician colleagues, Hauptman developed a surgical plan that would allow them to remove the tumor while preserving, hopefully, the teenager's ability to sing and process musical notes.
"To play with [the tumor] It could affect my voice permanently and, as Dr. Hauptman knew how important it was for me to continue to sing and play, he wanted to be very careful in removing the tumor, "she said. "He did not want to interfere with my ability to sing."
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Hauptman decided to do an awake craniotomy, which meant that he would go into Iaconetti's brain while she was under anesthesia, then wake her up to sing, igniting the areas of the brain that work when she uses her musical abilities.
"Our goal was not only to take care of the tumor, but also to improve his life. We wanted to preserve the things that interested him, such as his passion for pursuing a career in musical theater, "he said.
Making a patient wake up and sing was a first for surgeons in Seattle.
"We have never seen a patient sing in the operating room and Kira is such a talented musician," said neuropsychologist Dr. Hillary Shurtleff. "Her voice is so beautiful and her willingness to do something new has helped make the whole process interactive, collaborative and exciting."
The operation of September 4 went off without a hitch, Iaconetti testing it while the doctors mapped her brain. Next, Hauptman worked on eliminating the tumor by interpreting Weezer's "Island of the Sun," which she chose because it reminded her of her family and Hawaii, where she was born. In addition, one of the sentences says, "I can not control my brain", to which she added "literally".
Kira Iaconetti
Seattle children
The doctors then went back to sleep and finished the operation. Iaconetti was back to sing and play guitar 48 hours later from her hospital bed.
Hauptman said that Iaconetti will probably not require additional surgery.
"Kira is a remarkable young woman who has had a terrible problem," he said. "We have come together and have come up with a very new way to approach her problem and hope that it will have a positive impact for the rest of her life."
Kira Iaconetti
Seattle children
And Iaconetti is ready for his next show.
"Before my surgery, my biggest fear was that seizures do not hinder performance," she said. "Now, I want to come back on stage, play as soon as I can."
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