Surgeons to perform first brain surgery on live television

Brain stimulation surgery live from the operating room

Bryant Gumbel, former co-host of CBS News' "The Early Show" is getting ready to host a different kind of live event.

For the first time on American television, doctors will perform live brain surgery on a patient who volunteered after suffering years of tremors related early onset Parkinson's disease.

"We're touting this as not just live brain surgery, but also a celebration of the brain, which remains one of the great mysteries of the universe," Gumbel told "CBS This Morning" Thursday.

Gumbel will guide viewers as the patient undergoes a deep brain stimulation, which delivers electrical impulses inside the brain. While the surgery is expected to take about six hours, the broadcast will feature just two hours it hopes are the most educational for viewers.

Gumbel dismissed any risks pertaining to the operation, saying that it had been conducted on 80,000 people. A surgical team of eight people will be operating on patient Greg Grindley's brain while he is awake, so surgeons will know where to target electrodes to block the tremors caused by the disease. But the surgeons can halt the broadcast at any time.

"Every time they want us out of the way, we're out of the way," Gumbel said.

The broadcast will also air in 117 countries in 45 different languages.

Gumbel expressed hopes that the broadcast would "demystify" fears surrounding brain surgery, because of its "potential to address a lot of problems," including obesity, traumatic brain injury, OCD, and more.

While Gumbel said results are hard to tell, he said since the feds approved of the DBS operation in 2002, it has had "great success."

Viewers can tune in to the National Geographic Channel Oct. 25 to witness the mystery of whether the brain surgery will make Grindley's tremors disappear.

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