This is an old article (2016) but it's fascinating. From the abstract of the Lancet article,
This is an old article (2016) but it's fascinating. From the abstract of the Lancet article,
A 44-year-old man presented with a 2-week history of mild left leg weakness. At the age of 6 months, he had undergone a ventriculoatrial shunt, because of postnatal hydrocephalus of unknown cause. When he was 14 years old, he developed ataxia and paresis of the left leg, which resolved entirely after shunt revision. His neurological development and medical history were otherwise normal. He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant. On neuropsychological testing, he proved to have an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 75: his verbal IQ was 84, and his performance IQ 70. CT showed severe dilatation of the lateral ventricles (figure); MRI revealed massive enlargement of the lateral, third, and fourth ventricles, a very thin cortical mantle and a posterior fossa cyst. We diagnosed a non-communicating hydrocephalus, with probable stenosis of Magendie's foramen (figure). The leg weakness improved partly after neuroendoscopic ventriculocisternostomy, but soon recurred; however, after a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was inserted, the findings on neurological examination became normal within a few weeks. The findings on neuropsychological testing and CT did not change.
Initially, this completely amazed me and I had to know more. It seems, though, this article is a tad misleading. In this article, there’s a correction that states the man’s brain was slowly...
Initially, this completely amazed me and I had to know more. It seems, though, this article is a tad misleading. In this article, there’s a correction that states the man’s brain was slowly crushed, meaning there’s more than 10% of his brain still present, but it’s been “squished”. That’s still remarkable, but not what the original headline claims.
There’s also a somewhat recent Reddit thread about this. There are some helpful comments that further illuminate what was going on. There also claims that this man did have some development struggles in his youth, so he may have not been symptom-free while his brain was slowly “squished” over his lifetime.
Despite all of this, it’s still fascinating. It’s crazy that his brain was able to withstand such abuse.
This is an old article (2016) but it's fascinating. From the abstract of the Lancet article,
Initially, this completely amazed me and I had to know more. It seems, though, this article is a tad misleading. In this article, there’s a correction that states the man’s brain was slowly crushed, meaning there’s more than 10% of his brain still present, but it’s been “squished”. That’s still remarkable, but not what the original headline claims.
There’s also a somewhat recent Reddit thread about this. There are some helpful comments that further illuminate what was going on. There also claims that this man did have some development struggles in his youth, so he may have not been symptom-free while his brain was slowly “squished” over his lifetime.
Despite all of this, it’s still fascinating. It’s crazy that his brain was able to withstand such abuse.