Jordana Brewster Details Undergoing Brain Surgery While Awake

Jordana Brewster Details Undergoing Brain Surgery While Awake

Jordana Brewster had to watch the world turn as she underwent brain surgery.

Indeed, the 46-year-old was awake during the operation in 2020, which was done to address a seizure-causing cavernous malformation in her brain.

While she was first diagnosed at 28, Brewster had been on medication that managed her condition and prevented episodes for over a decade. After two breakthrough seizures, she opted for the awake craniotomy.

“They shaved this part,” the As the World Turns alum explained on the June 30 episode of She MD. “They opened my skull and I was on my side and there was someone in front of me showing me cards and sort of testing my language and two brilliant neurosurgeons behind me.”

And Brewster wasn’t furious about being conscious during the procedure. In fact, she acknowledged that it helped ensure that the doctors were proceeding safely.

“If I couldn’t come up with a word association or if I couldn't answer a question,” she said, “they knew, ‘Okay, we've hit a part of the brain we shouldn't hit and let's stay away from there.’”

Indeed, the Fast and Furious actress admitted that she felt aphasia while in surgery, which was a strange sensation.

“You think it, you know the answer, but you’re not able to say it, which is a really weird feeling,” she explained. “And it also made me question, ‘Wait, what about patients that are in a coma or what about patients that can’t articulate what they want to say but it’s there, which is really frustrating?’”

Laurent KOFFEL/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The mom of two—who shares Julian, 12, and Rowan, 10, with ex-husband Andrew Form—is happy to report that she’s been seizure-free for six years.

“I kind of overhauled my life in 2020 and I think that helped also to give me the bravery to do something about the CVM,” the D.E.B.S. star, who married Mason Morfit in 2022, concluded. “I got a divorce. I found the love of my life. It was like Eat Pray Love on steroids.”

Keep reading to see how other celebs have navigated health scares…

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