Musician Plays Saxophone with His Skull Exposed on the Surgery Table

Grey’s Anatomy—arguably the best medical drama television series the world has ever seen—will soon become TV’s longest-running medical drama as it goes into its fourteenth season this September. The show centers around the lives of surgeons, from the extraordinary work they do each day to the equally draining dilemmas they face outside of the hospital. Its followers latched on for more reasons than one—like McDreamy and McSteamy of course—but they stick around for the crazy symptoms and conditions patients walk through the doors of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital with. These cases simply make the drama what it is: from a man claiming he’s pregnant with a big belly to back it up, another with a tree growing in his lung, and a music teacher with a brain tumor who winds up playing a saxophone during his surgery. Oh wait—that last one didn’t happen on Grey’s Anatomy. It happened in real life.

Music is Dan Fabbio’s entire life. He plays it, performs it, studies it, and teaches it—his whole life is built around it. So when doctors found a tumor sitting directly on the area of his brain responsible for music function, Fabbio didn’t shrivel in despair but rose ready to fight. And he was joined by a team fit with scientists, doctors, and a music professor, determined to help him win the battle.

It all started when Fabbio began hallucinating while working on his music education capstone project. After also becoming dizzy and nauseous, he decided to pay a visit to the hospital, where a CAT scan gave the frightening news that Fabbio had a tumor in his brain. Fortunately, the tumor was benign. But the misfortune was that it was located in a region responsible for music function.

Upon diagnosis, he was unsurprisingly sent to see neurosurgeon Web Pilcher, M.D., Ph.D., at UR Medicine’s Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, who had recently combined forces with an associate professor in the University of Rochester Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Brad Mahon, to develop a Translational Brain Mapping program specifically for patients undergoing surgery to remove tumors. The foundation for this program is Pilcher and Mahon’s dedication to their patient’s living the lives they desire, not just surviving; they tailor the brain mapping program for each individual in order to “perform the procedure without causing damage to parts of the brain that are important to that person’s life and function,” said Pilcher.

While Pilcher and Mahon certainly had the experience to take on Fabbio’s case, they decided to capitalize on their resources and sought out additional help from Eastman School of Music (which is a part of the University of Rochester). Elizabeth Marvin, Ph.D., a professor of Music Theory at the school, joined Mahon in his efforts to develop a series of cognitive musical tests for Fabbio to perform during an MRI. Researchers analyzed his brain during these tests and were able to determine the areas responsible for music and language processing. Their discoveries then allowed the team to produce a detailed three-dimensional map of Fabbio’s brain, which would serve as a guideline for the surgeons in the OR.

Now was the time to perform: the surgical team, Marvin, and Fabbio, even as he lay on the table with his brain exposed. Throughout the procedure, Pilcher referred to the map that had been created of Fabbio’s brain in order to avoid hindering his musical abilities. And Fabbio repeated the same tests used during the MRI, which Marvin evaluated, to further ensure areas of musical value were avoided. Once the tumor was successfully removed, it was time for the final performance and the moment of truth: Fabbio, still lying on the surgical table, was given his saxophone and, to the relief of everyone in the room, played it flawlessly.

The day proved to be a momentous one for all involved. Fabbio not only survived the surgery but came out of it with his musical abilities intact, thanks to the undying efforts of Pilcher, Mahon, Marvin, and the rest of the team. According to Marvin, it was particularly special, “because it felt like all of [her] training was suddenly changing someone’s life and allowing [Fabbio] to retain his musical abilities.” Since the surgery, Fabbio has recovered completely and begun teaching music again.
We can’t fault ourselves for getting swept up in shows that excite and interest us, such as Grey’s Anatomy and other medical dramas. But stories like these remind us that the real groundbreaking medical procedures can’t be made up for a show’s storyline—they happen in our very own hospitals instead.

*This case is published in the journal Current Biology and demonstrates groundbreaking progress in understanding how exactly music is processed in the brain*

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