Violinist Naomi Elishuv gave her surgeons their own private Mozart concert Tuesday -- as they operated on her brain.
Elishuv performed professionally with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra before being diagnosed with essential tremor two decades ago, according to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The neurological condition can affect muscles throughout the body, but for Elishuv, it meant a trembling of the hands and the end of her orchestral career.
Earlier this week, surgeons inserted a pacemaker into the affected area of Elishuv's brain to regulate her tremors through electric impulses. According to the hospital's director of functional neurosurgery, Yitzhak Fried, she was asked to play during the procedure because he and other doctors needed Elishuv's "active participation in real-time" to implant the pacemaker.
Now, thanks to the life-changing operation, she's regained her rhythm.
"When we activated the stimulation in the exact location, we found that the tremor had disappeared and Elishuv continued to play Mozart -- with great emotion, but without the tremor or side effects,” Fried told Israeli newspaper Haaretz. According to RT.com, it was the first time Fried had operated on someone playing an instrument.
The difference between her playing before and after the surgery is clearly apparent in the video above.
“It’s a shame that I didn’t know about this operation before,” said Elishuv, according to JNS.org. “Now I’m going to live again.”