Jordana Brewster is getting candid about undergoing brain surgery — while she was awake.
When she was 28 years old, the Fast and Furious actress, 46, was diagnosed with a cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM), which are small clusters of blood vessels in the brain or spinal cord that contain slow-moving blood that’s usually clotted, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Following two “break-through” seizures, she decided to undergo an awake craniotomy in 2020 to address the issue, and has now opened up about what it was really like to have your skull operated on while you’re awake.
Speaking on the Tuesday, June 30, episode of the She MD podcast, Jordana noted: “I didn’t have to shave my head entirely. I was really relieved about that. I didn’t have to have half my head shaved. So they shaved this part and then they opened my skull.”
“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,” she recalled.
And though being awake for brain surgery can definitely be trippy, to say the least, Jordana felt comfortable knowing it’d make it easier to confirm that doctors were proceeding safely.
© Getty Images“If I couldn’t come up with a word association or if I couldn’t answer a question they knew, ‘Oh, OK, we’ve hit a part of the brain we shouldn’t hit and let’s stay away from there,'” she said.
Jordana further shared that there were definitely “weird” moments she experienced a sort of “aphasia,” a neurological language disorder that impairs a person’s ability to speak, understand, read, and write. “You think it, you know the answer, but you’re not able to say it. Which is a really weird feeling 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.'”
Recalling life before the surgery, she said: “I just wanted this out so that I wouldn’t be burdened by it anymore. It was this constant cloud where I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what if.’ … I’m a control freak too, to lose control and to convulse in front of people or to lose control if you’re with your kid, that was always a constant fear. I’m so relieved that I’m able to talk about it now, hopefully help others and get it off my chest.”
© WireImage“The surgery was successful, thank god. They got it out,” she maintained. “I’ve been seizure-free, symptom-free for six years now and I’m so grateful.”
© Getty ImagesThe procedure was not the only turning point in Jordana’s life that year, having also divorced her ex-husband Andrew Form, who she married in 2007 and with whom she shares sons Julian, 12, and Rowan, 10, in 2020 as well. In 2022, she married ValueAct Capital CEO Mason Morfit.
“I think that helped also to give me the bravery to do something about the CVM,” she shared of how she “kind of overhauled” her life. “I got a divorce, I found the love of my life. It was like Eat, Pray, Love on steroids.”
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