The drums give me soulos

The doctor Thorsteinn Gunnarsson, who now lives and works in Sweden, shot home to Iceland last weekend. Not to do medical work, but the lecture was playing at the Icelandic Pop Orchestra, but it is composed of « old » champions from the music, three doctors and one economics professor. Thorstein is not only a brain surgeon, now head of the Children's Cancer Department, but also a drummer. He gave himself time from rigid band exercises and friendships to sit down with a journalist and discuss the career that is quite unusual. You do not know at least many brain surgeons and let alone drumming brain surgeons!

Relaxes to the drums

« The drums came to me quickly; There was really no choice I had. I just hardly remember myself any different from drums and actually long before I had a drum set, ”says Thorsteinn, recalling an event that was going to have a great impact on the baby.

« I remember being on Landsbanki's Christmas ball five years old at Hotel Saga. There, Raggi Bjarni was playing with a band and I sat down at the stage and just watched the drummer. That was the only thing I did. Then I built my own drums and after I nagging enough in my parents I got a drum set for eleven years, ”says Thorsteinn, but until then he had learned a trumpet in a music school.

What is it about the drums that fascinates you?

« I've often thought about it. It is something that makes me that for me this is a kind of meditation. A few years ago, I learned what « Mindfulness Meditation », where you learn to relax and get into a certain state of mind. When I had learned, I thought: Wait now, this is just like sitting behind the drum kit! And I don't have to fight to get into this state of mind because as soon as I start playing music, even if it is aggressive, I'm inside a relaxed. For me, this is one way to relax. « 

With the board of the Eurovision

During his adolescence, Thorsteinn was aiming for music and got young to play with very experienced musicians.

« From the age of sixteen, I had this for a semi -employed job. I played with the school and gained both experience and knowledge of the music business. At the age of twenty, I started to think, because I am now rather grounded, that this was a rather difficult job and not very practical. I had often thought that I might have to learn something else too to be able to imagine. Mom had always said it; That music was nice but I should be careful to learn something else too. I also felt that I wanted to do something else, even though I had not come to music at all, ”says Thorsteinn, but he signed up in the medical department after the student.

« I could continue to play music even though I was in the medical program. When I entered the medical department, almost on the same day, I was hired on the board which was not a particularly famous band. Sigga Beintein had been playing together in another band called Kikk and started at the same time on the board with Gretar Örvarsson. It was then a house band in Hotel Iceland, ”he says.

« So for the first few years in the medical department I was at the same time on the board and there was a lot to do, » says Thorsteinn, and he was on the first two albums of the board and also went with the band to Zagreb in Eurovision where they memorably placed in fourth place with their song.

« When I went on to a special education in Sweden, I took a long break from the band and didn't really start again until I moved to Canada. »

Does not miss the shift work

In his medical program at home, Thorsteinn had worked for a few weeks in vocational studies at Borgarspítali under the guidance of brain surgeons and immediately found that he wanted to be there, but he had also been keenly interested in the brain and nervous system when he worked on his research project.

« I immediately saw that this was a diverse job; You work on reception, in the living room, in intensive care and to cut up. Sometimes you are in actions that have been planned for months and then in others that you did not know to stand for a few minutes earlier. The doctors I worked with at Borgarspítali were really good and great role models. I was fascinated by this, « says Thorsteinn, who then chose special education in brain surgery in Linköping, Sweden.

Thorstein was on duty for 25 years as a brain surgeon but is now in a management position at a large hospital in Sweden.

« I don't regret it. I was there for five years but wanted to learn more and went into underworld studies in cerebral surgery and vertebrae. Then I went to Toronto for graduate studies and was going to be for two years, but then added two years and studied then in -medicine, « says Thorsteinn, explaining that at this time it was clear that future treatment for brain surgery would not be performed in open brain surgery, but they did.

« After four years in Canada, life changed and I met my wife who is also a brain surgeon, » says Thorsteinn, whose wife Paula is from Argentina and they have two children together, twelve and fifteen, but Thorsteinn also has three sons from the previous relationship.

Thorstein and Paula then got both work in a large hospital in the city of Hamilton, which is just outside Toronto.

« There I got a job, among other things as a children's health surgeon, but I had always been interested in it, » says Thorsteinn.

After ten years in Hamilton, the couple received a job offer in Sweden and made them packed together and two children and moved across the sea to Gothenburg.

Do you think the couple just about their brain and veins at home?

Thorstein breaks out.

« Yes, sometimes. There is much discussion. I remember once when our fifteen boy, who is now fifteen, came into our room when he just started walking and talking. Paula was then showing me computerized images of the brain. Then they hear in the short, « Oh, it's just a brain, » says Thorsteinn, laughing.

« Paula is currently working on Sahlgrenska, but I am in a new job and dangers in shift work. I am now head of pediatric cancer medicine in Gothenburg at the Children's Hospital. I am well acquainted with the cancer of children in the brain, but there is more in the management position, but this is the largest child cancer department in Sweden, ”says Thorsteinn, but he has not cut up for two years.

« I've been working so much and it was time for change. I may miss close proximity to patients, but I do not miss the shift work. I was on duty second or third every day for 25 years. Often you were on duty at night and then worked the next day. It came quite a few times that I was awake for three, four days. In Canada, everything is different and more workload than here. « 

With the responsibility of people's lives

Most of us would like to be responsible for scrambled in people's brains and it can be said that brain surgeons are literally with the lives of people in their hands.

« It is a huge responsibility that comes with the job. It's hard to describe it. When you are younger and you are an assistant physician, you always work under the supervision and responsibility of others, but when you are an expert you are to book your own actions. I still remember when I booked my first children's operation in Canada. Although you are an experienced specialist, the requirements are very high and you are also responsible for assistant physicians who work under you. In many actions, and not least brain surgery, if something goes bad, everything can go to hell. Then people can kill, paralyze or get other lasting damage for lifetime, ”he says.

« You go into some special gear and solve the project. It must be solved because it cannot be canceled. Sometimes it is so that when the operation is done and the cloths are taken away, you see the patient again. This is perhaps perhaps a tiny child and the responsibility is poured over a person again. And in front of the waiting room, maybe fifteen people are crying to wait for the news, ”says Thorsteinn.

Heavy rock brain surgeons

Thorstein enjoyed himself well in Sweden; Says the country family friendly and that he is happy in the new job.

« I play in the heavy rock band Brain surgeons in Gothenburg; The Locked inn. So I'm playing in a blues and soul band with Birni Vilhjálmsson, bass player who has lived in Sweden for thirty years. It's a very cool band. So I am also occasionally playing with two singers who publish their own material and in those projects another Icelandic bass player, Benedikt Gunnar Ívarsson plays. I then come to Iceland for all kinds of special projects, like when I came and played in Harpa on Jón Ólafsson's birthday. So I'm in a mee, which is a kiss group and I have also come home to play with the board and the others, ”he says.

« I always think of it and this gives me soul.« 

There is a detailed interview with Thorstein in the Sunday newspaper Morgunbladid this weekend.