#Italian woman makes 90 stuffed olives while undergoing brain surgery

A 60-year-old woman from the country’s Marche region prepared dozens of delicious stuffed olives while undergoing brain surgery — to reduce the risk of damaging the vital organ, according to a report Wednesday.

As doctors removed a brain tumor from her left temporal lobe, the unnamed patient whipped up 90 of the breaded-and-fried olives in a makeshift kitchen inside the operating room, according to the BBC.

The doctor, who performed the so-called “awake brain surgery” at the Riuniti Hospital in Ancona, said keeping the woman engaged in a familiar activity while under the knife helped protect brain functions such as speech and memory.

“For her, we needed rapid hand movements,” neurosurgeon Roberto Trignani, told the Italian news agency Ansa. “[It] allows us to monitor the patient while we work on their brain functions and to calibrate our action.”

He added that, in this case, the procedure “went very well.”

The patient made 90 “Ascoli-style” green olives — served stuffed with meat and coated in fried breadcrumbs — over the course of an hour, said Trignani, who has performed the surgery on more than 60 people.

During similar brain surgeries, patients have been asked to sing, play a musical instrument or watch cartoons.