One of the first things kids do when they start to move around is they hum, make noises, clap their hands, start to dance. In that sense, music relates directly to me because it’s always been part of my life. I listen a lot and I play a lot. 

 

In epilepsy surgery we often have to do resections of the temporal lobe, which is an important part of the brain for understanding and appreciating music. I think the area has been overlooked a bit in terms of housing a ‘vital function’, and I’ve always tempered my operations to avoid damaging that connection if at all possible. I think you’ve lost a lot if music becomes just unconnected sounds, 

 

Do you play music in the operating theatres?

 

Absolutely. It’s nice to have something going on in the background and it smoothes your mind out when you’re operating in stressful situations. I like things that calm me down and still enable us to communicate as a team.

 

Usually I have power of veto as the surgeon in charge and there are a few ground rules. But we have a pretty flat hierarchy about who gets to request what.

 

I love hearing stuff from overseas - last year was Calypso and Soca because we had two trainees from the Caribbean. We currently have a Russian trainee so play a lot of Russian Big Band stuff. 

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Do you make music as well?

 

Yes, all the time. We’re always singing on the wards too - if you crack out a guitar and start strumming Ed Sheeran's ‘Castle on a Hill’, you’ll have 30 people join you.

 

At Christmas we sing a lot of carols because everyone knows the harmonies. Harmonisation generates a massive endorphin surge, a sense of union that’s almost supernatural.

 

Many of our kids bring in keyboards when they’re in hospital, and last year Isaac, one of our epilepsy patients,  wrote a song ‘It’s a Hospital Christmas’ which was lovely.

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Last year I worked with New York Science Rapper, Baba Brinkman, on a rap about epilepsy surgery for kids. We had hoped to demo it at the Bristol Festival of Science, but Covid put paid to that. Instead I had a tiny role in Baba’s anti-Covid rap ‘Stay Home’ on Youtube.

 

Do you think music has played a different role during the pandemic?

 

I think music is hugely permissive. It enables you to wear your heart on your sleeve. A lot of people have been very sad over Covid, for many different reasons. Music enables you to acknowledge the other side of your existence, not just the pure functional being. People listen to lyrics a lot these days and are in tune to the emotional effects. Music allows people to cry if they need to, which is important. 

 

My own experience is that people have been making music more too. Quite a few of my colleagues have joined musical groups, virtual choirs. And the number of people participating in singing in the hospital has gone up. It’s an odd but very lovely thing, singing in a work environment, and it’s become much more significant.

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