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Not only was she was awake through the entire procedure, but she was singing.
That's right, Stanhope's Selena Campione was belting out Taylor Swift's music so that doctors could monitor her speech as they worked.
Several months after the procedure in which the non-cancerous tumor was removed, Campione is feeling more and more like herself, symptom-free.
Campione scheduled an appointment with neurosurgical oncologist Dr. Nitesh Patel at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center after nearly a year of experiencing tingling and numbness on the right side of her body, and no answers from other doctors.
It started in her face and progressed throughout her body.
Despite all the things she tried, Selena’s symptoms were not improving. “There were days I would get up where I couldn't walk. I couldn't use my right hand,” she said. "My face would swell up. I couldn't speak, I would get stuck. I couldn't get words out. And nobody knew what to do.”
Patel did.
“Right away after looking at my case, he phoned me and he mentioned a couple different brain tumor types that he thought were causing my symptoms," Campione said.
Patel suggested an awake craniotomy to remove the brain tumor, while preserving Campione's speech. Through the use of a technology called Quicktome Connectomics, Patel told Campione he could monitor the speech and other sectors of her brain to ensure he wasn’t interfering with them while removing the tumor.
As long as Campione sang the whole time.
“Singing allows me to continuously monitor a patient's speech, cadence, and rhythm without interruptions and pauses that happen during a conversation,” Patel said.
Selena knew immediately what her surgical concert would be, Taylor Swift’s extensive catalog much like the singer’s famed Era’s Tour.
"My two daughters are huge Taylor Swift fans, and so am I. I hear her music 24 hours a day, in my car, in my house. I could sing with her on stage, if she wanted me to,” Campione said. “So it just made sense to sing it during surgery. It helped me, I felt like my daughters were with me.”
“22”, “Style” and “Shake It Off” were just some of the songs Campione sang during the procedure, nothing, “It was fantastic. I didn’t feel anything.
"The nurses were holding my hand, walking me through everything and singing along with me. I even think I’ve turned the doctors into Swifties. You see them in one of the videos tapping along to the beat with their tools.”
As of press time, Campione is off nearly all of the medications she had been put on before her tumor was found.
“My daughters were with me the whole surgery," Campione said. "Knowing they would be singing right along with me, got me through the surgery,” Selena said. “Now my younger daughter tells her teacher, Taylor Swift was in the operating room singing with me.”
As for her singing performance, Campione says “I mean it's a little embarrassing of course, I don't think Taylor Swift is going to want me to be on stage with her anytime soon."
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