A Stanhope, New Jersey, mom has taken her love of Taylor Swift to a new level.
Selena Campione, 36, underwent brain surgery on Jan. 31, 2024 – but it wasn’t an ordinary procedure.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Campione shared that she’d been to numerous doctors to address some peculiar symptoms that began in March 2023.
This included tingling and numbness on the right side of her body, which developed into an inability to hold objects in her right hand.
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“I couldn’t use my right arm, the right side of my face would swell up, and I would have trouble talking,” she said.
“I would be stuck, almost.”
Selena Campione, at right, along with a fellow teacher, are shown wearing their Taylor Swift-inspired T-shirts. (Hackensack Meridian Health)
Campione, a private school teacher, described how her symptoms kept “growing and growing,” leading to problems walking.
“My right leg – I wouldn’t even feel it,” she said. “I wouldn’t have feeling in my foot. Part of my skin would turn purple. I wouldn’t feel anything at all.”
The wife and mother sought help from various experts, including neurologists and MRI specialists, and went through multiple hospital stays. She said she was prescribed eight different medications.
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This was until she connected with Dr. Nitesh Patel, a neurosurgeon and co-director of the Neurosurgical Oncology program at Hackensack Meridian Health at Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
In the same interview with Fox News Digital, Patel disclosed his first encounter with Campione’s imaging, which led him to believe there was a larger issue at hand.
Campione is shown at left, along with one of her nurses, plus Dr. Patel at far right. He said Hackensack Meridian has performed more awake brain surgeries than any other network in the state.
Patel broke the news to Campione that she had a low-grade glioma on the left side of her brain, explaining the trouble on the right side of her body.
To remove the tumor, the neurosurgeon suggested an awake craniotomy, otherwise known as brain surgery, where the patient is not fully put under.
“I was scared out of my mind,” Campione said in reaction to finding out she’d be kept awake.
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“I couldn’t even believe that was a possibility. I didn’t even know that you could have brain surgery and be awake.”
While the news frightened her, Campione acknowledged that she wasn’t getting any better.
Selena Campione has been married to her husband for 10 years. The couple has two daughters, ages eight and six. (Hackensack Meridian Health)
“It was hard on me, but it was also on my family, too,” she said.
“My girls are little. I missed my daughter’s birthday [because] I was in the hospital. I missed a ton of work. I missed my students.”
” I could see how confident he was that this is what I needed.”
She added, “I trusted Dr. Patel’s judgment, and I could see how confident he was that this is what I needed.”
Why awake?
Campione was numbed from the top of her head down to her eyebrows and ears, Patel said, and then put under light anesthesia.
Patel said that keeping the patient awake during this procedure helps indicate to the surgeon what’s safe to touch and what’s not once the brain is exposed.
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“When we get to the surface of the brain, before we touch anything, which could potentially cause permanent damage, we want to know what we’re getting into,” he said.
“It’s high-end real estate.”
Campione’s tumor was reportedly sitting “in the middle” of the parts of her brain involved in speech and motor function.
This screening shows Campione’s brain before (at right) and after (at left) her brain surgery. (Hackensack Meridian Health)
During awake craniotomies, Patel can test the boundaries of the brain areas that are safe to tamper with by prompting the patient to stimulate the brain through speaking or, in Campione’s case, singing.
“She can talk, she can repeat things, tell us her name, etc.,” the doctor said. “And while we’re stimulating the brain, if she has any errors in those actions, we know that’s a critical area.”
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“We could do it the boring way … or we can do it a bit more of an exciting way, and I found singing is particularly very helpful.”
Patel added that during speech, the “pitch and the cadence of each word” varies, as does articulation, which is also captured in singing.
Surgical sing-along
Once Campione knew she’d be singing during surgery, her young daughters “jumped at the chance” for their mom to sing Taylor Swift tunes.
“That’s what’s playing in my house all the time, so I can probably sing all of her songs,” she said. “So, I – of course – was ready to sing Taylor.”
Patel assured her that since he was a Taylor Swift listener himself, he was “going to pick up” if Campione “mis-phrases something or says a word the wrong way.”
He said, “Furthermore, it’s also testing her memory … She knows the lyrics; she should be able to sing the songs.”
Campione admitted that all she could remember was “vaguely” hearing Swift’s song “Shake It Off” playing in the operating room.
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“I felt nothing. I didn’t know anything was going on,” she said. “I didn’t even know my head was open.”
She added, “I didn’t know I was singing until I saw all these videos of me singing.”
Campione said the nurses were “fantastic” and that they held her hand throughout the procedure. (Hackensack Meridian Health)
Patel remembered Campione singing along to other Swift songs, including “22,” “Bad Blood” and “You Need To Calm Down.”
“Basically, she did the Eras Tour for us,” he said, laughing.
“I don’t want to discount the complexity of everything that’s involved in doing a brain surgery,” he said. “But at the same time, I feel like the only way to really help patients get through the shock of going through any type of brain surgery is to have a touch of humor.”
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In addition to “keeping the mood light,” Patel mentioned the importance of patient preparation — of “knowing that the team there is ready to take care of them, is professionally skilled and very good at their job,” he said. “But at the same time, we’re all human beings.”
Campione reported feeling “fantastic” since her surgery, and now has scaled back her slew of medications to just one.
“I’m doing really well,” she said. “I feel pretty normal, which is fantastic, because I wasn’t able to say that for a long time now, and it was hard.”
She said as well, “I’m so grateful to Dr. Patel and the rest of the neuro team and everyone at Jersey Shore Hospital.”
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Campione has not been able to attend a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert due to her medical status.
She joked that if the pop star would like to gift her family tickets to the next U.S. show — “that would be awesome.”
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