|
 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 Reuters.
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."
[to top of second column] |
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.
(Reporting by Miranda Alexander-Webber; Writing By Alexandria Sage)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
