18/07/2025
BRAIN OPEN, EYES OPEN: A FIRST
She was awake when they opened her skull. So she could speak, move and help them avoid the parts of her brain that make her who she is.
On 17 July, at Western Visayas Medical Center, neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Ben Jabines and his team succesfully performed Panay Islandโs first awake craniotomy.
The mass pressed deep near the circuits that held the patient's voice and balance. One slip, and sheโd never finish another sentence, lift a fork or recognize the voice that raised her.
Each word she spoke was a flare in the dark. Every pause of the scalpel was an act of belief.
Itโs a declaration: that even outside the capital, care this complex, this delicate, this human is possible. That a public hospital in Iloilo could cradle such precision suggests a new direction, where world-class no longer means far away.
๐ธ Bryna Kimberly Jabines
