Hippo Campus Frontman Jake Luppen Announces Six-Hour Awake Brain Surgery for November 6

Hippo Campus fans got heavy news this week. Frontman Jake Luppen announced on Instagram that he’ll undergo a six-hour awake craniotomy on November 6 at the Mayo Clinic. Doctors believe a lesion near his basal ganglia, which he’s known about for seven years, is a stage two glioma. It was first spotted during an MRI for recurring migraines when he was in his early twenties. This summer, a routine scan showed possible growth, and an EEG revealed that the panic symptoms he’d been experiencing were actually focal seizures.

Because of the lesion’s delicate location, a traditional biopsy is too risky. Instead, surgeons will keep Luppen awake during the procedure, remove as much of the lesion as they safely can, and send the tissue for testing. In his own words:“They’ll remove as much of the lesion as possible and then send it off for testing. Once we know what it is, we’ll know how to treat it.”

Before the surgery, Hippo Campus will play one final sold-out hometown show at the Turf Club in St. Paul on October 19. Luppen wrote that the band is playing“to rage for one last time before I’m on my ass for a few months.”The group, formed in St. Paul in 2013, has built a dedicated following through albums like Landmark and Bambi, plus soundtrack placements that introduced them to a whole new audience. What’s your favorite Hippo Campus song? Drop it in the comments and let’s send Jake some love before November 6.