Watch: Iraqi patient plays oud, sings while doctors remove his brain tumour

Khaleej Times

15 hours ago

Hearing Umm Kolthum's iconic song "Enta Omri" echo through an operating room while doctors in blue scrubs delicately remove a brain tumor is far from ordinary—but in Iraq, it became a remarkable reality.
The story began when an Iraqi patient named Mohammed, who had been battling a brain tumor, sought treatment in several countries. Yet, time and again, doctors told him there was no hope for a cure.
However, doctors at Hayat International Hospital in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul performed a delicate operation to help Mohammed. In addition to this, they agreed to his wish to hold on to his oud during the operation and play music.
Although some may argue that Mohammed took his hobby a bit far, but doctors confirmed that the melodies and the singing were sending assurance messages to the team throughout the whole process.
"Despite the complexity of the surgery, we worked with confidence… because his music was telling us: ' I'm okay'," the hospital said in a statement.
In a clip shared by the hospital, Mohammed, who comes from the city of Zakho, is seen laying on a bed singing comfortably amid the operation. Take a look:
Calling the incident "a rare success story—inspiring and profoundly human in every sense of the word", the hospital said the unsual surgery was led by surgeon Dr Yahya Abdul Razaq Al-Juhaishi and anesthesiologist Dr Mohammed Thanon Hamed.
The oud was sterilized, along with all mobile phones used to film the clips, it emphasized.
In another clip showing preparations before the surgery, Mohammed is seen chatting with doctors and moving his feet. Later on, he is shown walking and hugging some of the hospital's staff members to thank them. Take a look:
In a recent similar case, a patient at a British hospital was allowed to play the violin while a tumour was removed from her brain back in 2020.
The decision to let Dagmar Turner, 53 play music during the surgery aimed to help surgeons protect both her ability to perform and her 40-year passion for the instrument.