Musician plays saxophone during brain surgery to ensure surgeons do not damage him

A Spanish jazz musician was allowed to play his saxophone during a brain surgery to ensure his neurological functions remained undamaged. UPI reported.

Carlos Aguilera, 27, was sedated and given painkillers during the surgery to remove a brain tumor at Malaga's Carlos Haya hospital, but he was kept awake and playing his sax during the procedure to ensure surgeons did not damage his ability to play.

Aguilera and the doctors who performed the procedure appeared at a news conference Wednesday to announce the surgery had been successful. UPI reported.

"Two months ago I was on the operating table and now I have my life ahead of me, I have been brought back to life," The Local quoted Aguilera as saying during the conference.

"Without music I am nothing," Aguilera said.

Dr. Guillermo Ibanez, the neurosurgeon who led surgery, said the technique was the best way to ensure Aguilera's career as a musician was not endangered.

This is not the first time musicians have insisted they are allowed to play their instruments while undergoing a surgery, earlier this year Anthony Kulkamp Dias, 33, who underwent brain surgery at Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceicao in Brazil was kept awake during the procedure and sang while playing his guitar.

Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne, a Slovenian opera singer serenaded his surgery team with Schubert's "Gute Nacht" while undergoing a similar procedure at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

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