One patient at a hospital in France got the most
unlikely of shocks when he went for a check-up
on a leg injury - to be told he was missing half of
his brain.The 44-year-old father-of-two, who has
not been identified, amazed doctors who could
not believe he had survived.
The bizarre diagnosis has only just been brought
to light in the respected medical journal, The
Lancet, but actually happened in 2007.
Lionel Feuillet, who studied the man's brain, told
the New Scientist: "The whole brain was reduced
frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes — on
both left and right sides.
"These regions control motion, sensibility,
language, vision, audition, and emotional, and
cognitive functions."
Doctors discovered that the man had suffered
post-natal hydrocephalus- or water on the brain
- as a child
Shunts applied to his head were removed when
he was 14 and it is thought for the next 30 years
fluid continued to build in his brain and slowly
break down brain matter until he lost between
50% to 75%.
Now, after an eight year study, scientists believe
the man survived because his brain reorganised
itself over time.
Most of the brain fluid has now been drained and
the man lives a normal life with a job in the civil
service.
Scientists writing in the Lancet have therefore
reached the conclusion that a person's
intelligence and brain size are not as related as
once thought.
They believe that as bits of the brain died, other
parts took on the jobs the dead bits used to do.
UK Mirror
No comments:
Post a Comment