SEATTLE (WHDH) — A Washington state teenager sang her way through brain surgery so doctors could preserve her musical ability.
Kira Iaconetti’s dreams of a musical theater career were on hold when doctors discovered a marble-sized tumor on her right temporal lobe, which controls her auditory senses. The 19-year-old lost her ability to process sound and sing on key.
“A cruel sick joke that it would happen right there on the one thing I’m actually passionate about,” she said.
Neurosurgeons at Seattle Children’s Hospital came up with a plan to test Iaconetti’s ability to sing and listen to music in real time under the knife with a procedure known as awake craniotomy.
“Our focus is not only taking care of the tumor but making her life better,” Pediatric Neurosurgeon Jason Hauptman.
They say she didn’t feel any pain and the surgery hit all the right notes.
Iaconetti plans to get back on stage and perform once she recovers.
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