France woman sings during throat surgery
June 21 BTI
A professional singer said on Monday she sang through a throat
surgery carried out under hypnosis in France to ensure that doctors did
not harm her vocal cords.
Singer Alama Kante, 31, who is from Guinea and specializes in
traditional African songs, revealed the operation more than two months
after it took place in April, saying she was now fully healed.I remember
(during surgery) this voice singing all the time, my voice going around
in my head because I said to myself it is out of the question that I
lose my voice," Kante, who lives in France and is the niece of Guinean
singer Mory Kante, told.The procedure to remove her thyroid gland whose
cells had become enlarged and thus a cancer risk was unorthodox. The
operation is usually conducted under anaesthetic, with a tube inserted
down the throat.
Recognizing that any damage to vocal cords and important nerves by
the tube, and during the tumor extraction itself could truncate Kante's
singing range, Dr. Gilles Dhonneur opted for medical hypnosis to allow
the patient to remain awake and able to respond during the procedure.
Dhonneur, head of anaesthesiology at the Henri-Mondor de Cretail
Hospital outside Paris, has been perfecting the technique of medical
hypnosis for two years.
"The pain of such an operation is unbearable if you're conscious,"
Dhonneur told Le Parisian daily. "Only medical hypnosis would allow
someone to tolerate such an ordeal.
Kante remembers the hypnotist telling her that the pain she felt was
that of childbirth, and remembers the song lyrics she sang to help
control it: "Fight, never give up..." "There was a moment where I really
felt pain ... and it passed, the pain passed and afterwards it was
normal, as if I were in a dream," said Kante. |