Violin was last minute addition to surgery, says brain tumour patient after her video goes viral

A patient whose video of playing the violin during a brain surgery got viral on social media said that the surgeons made a last-minute decision to allow her to play the instrument while they operating on her brain.

Dagmar Turner, 53, a former management consultant from the Isle of Wight, said she had made the suggestion in a series of meetings prior to surgery, but doctors at London's King's College Hospital only asked her to bring her violin the day before.

"Well, the thing was, I was the one who mentioned very early on in all our meetings we had that 'why don't I play the violin so they can preserve, the areas in my brain which would affect my violin playing?'"

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The minute Turner and her husband checked into the hotel a day before the surgery, she received an email by doctors reminding her to bring the violin.

"We were just like, what? Now? It's a bit late! And my husband was already starting the email back, like sorry guys, it's a bit too late, and I said no, no, no, hang on, I've got lots of friends in London who play violin."

Turner then called some of her friends after which a friend who lives in South London

And I called one of them - and he lives, actually, quite close to Denmark Hill (where King's College Hospital is located in south London), and he straight away said 'of course I'll get you a violin,' Turner said.

"In the morning my husband just walked to South London and picked up, the guitar and we had it there ready for the mapping," Turner added.

The tumour, in her right frontal lobe, was dangerously close to areas of her brain that were responsible for coordinating delicate movements in her left hand.

In an interview before the surgery, the violinist said "the violin is my passion. I've been playing since I was 10-years-old and the thought of losing my ability to play was heart-breaking."

"We perform around 400 tumour removals each year, which often involves rousing patients to carry out language tests, but this was the first time I've had a patient play an instrument," Ashkan said in a press release after the surgery.

Before the procedure, a team of medical experts spent two hours mapping Turner's brain to figure out which areas were active when she played the violin.

Doctors managed to successfully remove over 90 per cent of the tumour without damaging Turner's fine motor skills.

She went home to her husband and son three days after the procedure.
"I'm hoping to be back with my orchestra very soon," Turner said after the surgery.

She plays with the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra.