Doctors in India recently performed brain surgery on a conscious man while the patient played his acoustic guitar. The musician didn’t just strum away to pass the time, the doctors needed him to play while they performed an operation to treat his Musician’s Dystonia.

According to Dystonia.org.uk, “Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder. It is caused by the brain sending incorrect information to the muscles and is characterized by involuntary, prolonged muscle contractions, which cause affected parts of the body to be twisted into abnormal postures. It can affect a range of parts of the body including the neck, eyes, voice and hand.”

Abhishek Prasad suffers from Musician’s Dystonia, which causes painful spasms and abnormal postures in his fretting hand. Obviously, it’s heartbreaking when a guitarist is unable to play their instrument, and in Prasad’s case, he was unable to use his middle, ring and pinky fingers.

When Prasad mustered up the courage to undergo brain surgery, doctors operated on him while he was awake. His surgeons asks Prasad to play the guitar mid-procedure every time they “burnt” a circuit in his brain into order to help locate abnormalities.

After seven hours of surgery, Prasad was finally finished. “It was amazing to see my fingers improve magically on the operation table itself,” Prasad says. “By the end of surgery, my fingers were 100% cured and I could move them like before.” Prasad is expected to make a full recovery within a month.

Check out the video of Abhishek Prasad playing guitar while being operated on above.

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