SEATTLE (KIRO/CNN) - A teenager from Washington is recovering from brain surgery. Doctors removed a tumor, but in order to preserve her musical talents they had her sing during surgery.
"I think her prognosis medically is excellent," said Dr. Jason Hauptman, neurosurgeon at Seattle Children's. "I think her prognosis in life is even better."
Kira Iaconetti has sung countless times, but it's here in surgery where her future depended on it the most.
"I think it's funny that for my passion, I had to perform my passion while getting brain surgery," she said.
Iaconetti, now 19, has been performing in musical theater since she was 6 and hopes to make a career of it. But 4 years ago, she started experiencing short episodes when she would sing or listen to music.
"All my energy is zapped; it's all gone," she said.
She had a rare form of epilepsy that triggered seizures when she listened to or performed music. Her MRI revealed a marble-sized mass in the right temporal lobe of her brain.
Hauptman proposed surgery to remove the tumor. He also suggested an “awake craniotomy,” where she would have to sing, so he could map out areas of her brain to protect.
"It's not enough for her just to sing," he said. "I need to know if she's singing in a way that's deviating from the way she should be singing."
She was on board with his plan.
"If this is what it takes to keep my career going and get out of my tiny town, then sure, go for it," Iaconetti said.
Her song of choice was "Island in the Sun" by Weezer.
"She performed flawlessly, really a performance of her lifetime," Hauptman said.
Three months later, she said she's feeling "really good." She still hasn't stepped up on stage yet, but she's making progress.
"I feel like I'm not quite at what I know I can do, but getting there," Iaconetti said.
She's heartened her story has caught the attention of others.
"I've seen a lot of other people say that they've had something very similar to this, and this made them speak out and figure out what it was," she said.
Weezer even tweeted about her and sent her tickets to the April show in Vancouver.
Most of all, she's full of gratitude for Hauptman, who not only successfully removed the tumor but gave her a second chance at what she loves: music.
"I was in shock that he even cared that much to preserve that," Iaconetti said.
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