Carrie Bickmore got emotional on The Project desk last night, opening up about her late husband, Greg Lange’s, brain surgery.
The 34-year-old was reminded of Lange lying awake on the operating table for five hours during his cancer treatment, while surgeons attempted to remove a brain tumour.
“My late husband Greg had brain surgery awake, Five hours, lying there awake while he had someone operate on his brain,” she said last night. “What they can do is phenomenal.”
Bickmore brought up the topic after footage aired of an opera singer, Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne, singing during his brain operations while surgeons tried to keep him comfortable.
“They do it because obviously in some situations they want to get the tumour out, but they don’t want to take all the good part as well because then you won’t be able to walk, you won’t be able to talk,” she said.
“So they touch a little bit of the area and check, ‘Where is that? Can you still feel your feet? Can you still speak?’ before they take it.
“For five hours they talked about footy, he tried to set up one of the nurses with one of his mates… They have to find things to talk about to keep them talking and to keep them awake.”
“It would be terrifying,” she said. “He suffered from anxiety and I can’t imagine the feeling of lying there knowing someone is operating on your brain.”
Earlier this year, Bickmore dedicated her Gold Logie Award to Greg and his fight against the brutal disease.
“He was an incredibly brave man, and a great dad,” said Carrie at the time.
“Everyone thinks this is a rare form of cancer and it’s not,” she said, “It kills more kids than any other disease.”
Greg passed away in 2010. The couple had a little boy, Ollie, who was only three at the time. He used to push Greg around in the wheelchair, after he couldn’t walk anymore.
Watch Carrie speaking about Greg below
