Do you really need a frontal lobe?

Free Republic ^ | 3/19 2005 | Salamander

[TASMANIANRED]

I have the consent of Salamander to post this.

In the interest of clarity for those undecided about Terri's quality of life and her potential for recovery, I post Salamanders story. A fascinating take on the nature of brain injury and its effects on consciousness.

I have no frontal lobe. It was destroyed in an accident in 1981. All that's filling up the space is scar tissue and spinal fluid. Apparently I'm still functioning and "thinking" to some extent. I won't bore you with the details of the damage I also sustained in my temporal and parietal lobes and cerebellum.

Suffice it to say that I was declared "hopeless" by the doctors in the hospital and that *if* I ever awoke, I'd be a "vegetable" for life. They told my parents that injuries *much* less severe than my own usually killed people, outright.

After an 11 day hospital "death watch", I simply awoke and asked for a cheeseburger. There was no gradual "improvement" in health. I just woke up and that was it. [I had my cheeseburger and walked out of the hospital that same day and went out to dinner and dancing, that night] Miracle? Probably. With the exception of anosmia and a balance problem [inner ear bones damaged too], I was "fine". I have to work a little harder to recall things due to short-term memory problems and my fine motor control isn't as fine as it used to be, but and I *am* "functioning and thinking to some extent".

I hope you understand now why I am so disgusted by people who say that "this part or the other of her brain is missing and therefore there is no hope". I am lacking major parts which are supposedly "vital" to consciousness and "self" yet here am I, lucid and functioning superbly.

My point is, there is always -hope- and science doesn't even begin to understand how the brain can "reroute circuitry" to compensate for damaged areas.

Having nearly been like Terri, myself, I have a vested interest in her welfare.

She deserves an attempt at rehabilitation. She deserves physical and mental stimulation. The brain will "atrophy" when deprived of such things and my doctors have flat-out told me that my own efforts to "exercise" my mind, post-injury are responsible for the fact that I am "firing on [almost] all cylinders", today.

I ~could~ have "been her" and she could yet have a chance to "be me"....or at least greatly improved, if only her adoring spouse would allow her that chance.

[nicmarlo]

Half brain girl 'fluent in two languages'

A girl who had half her brain removed to save her life has fully recovered the ability to be fluent at languages.

However, while the discovery amazed doctors at a Dutch hospital, UK experts say that in most cases, children who undergo such a drastic procedure do recover language skills....

---------------------------------

Half of Girl's Brain Removed To Stop Seizures Operation is last resort

By Nancy A. Melville HealthSCOUT Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 14 (HealthSCOUT) -- A Nebraska teen-ager was in fair condition today after undergoing a radical operation to remove half of her brain in an attempt to prevent the spread of a devastating condition that caused severe seizures and may one day have led to the girl's death.....

----------------------------------------

The boy with half a brain

A remarkable operation in which a severely epileptic child had half his brain removed is chronicled in a BBC documentary.

The radical surgery not only improved Harrison Ward-Mullis' epilepsy, but did not have the catastrophic effects on his brain power that some doctors might have feared.

His story, evidence of the amazing power of the brain to adapt under pressure, is told in "Brain Story" on Tuesday....

[Salamander]

I've never bean better.
In fact, I'm quite a little tomato now.
[at least hubby finds me apeeling]

Lettuce stop this silliness before I get all artichoked up.


[roflmao]

[Salamander]

We were all just waiting for you to say it....;))

[Salamander]

"It's a lot better than photo's of a pelvic."

I dunno about that. [not that I post that, either]...LOL!
The first ones I ever saw sent me into a blind panic.
I didn't know how a brain *should* look so I assumed every little bump, wiggle or shadow was terminal....;))
[and your skull just looks -gross- inside *and* outside. thank heaven for skin]


"You have quite a sense of humor."

I'll quote my dad on that score;

"I'm afraid if I don't keep laughing, I might start screaming".

Wise words from an old hillbilly who's survived many a hard time, himself.
It's always worked for me....;))

[Salamander]

You're welcome but I must confess I'm a little freaked out to be telling "strangers" all the intimate details of my cranium.
It's just so....*personal*, ya know?
But, if it helps at all, what the heck....;)

[Salamander]

Actually, I'm the one with lowbrow/low budget dining preferences.
What can I say?
I love Quarter Pounders....;))

[Brad’s Gramma]

Well, reading this thread, you've not only brought to light a very important subject, but allowed a few chuckles this otherwise rotten night....

So? I thank you again!

[Salamander]

"but allowed a few chuckles this otherwise rotten night...."


If jests would salve even a single sorrowing soul, I'm ever happy to play the fool...:)


[and you're welcome and thank *you*]

[Petronski]

So people who didn't see it there will find it here.


What's the problem with posting it? If you've already seen it, skip it.

[Awestruck]

Thank you for posting this.. I'll try to send links to the "fence sitters" on here as you call them, but I don't have hope that it would change their minds.. they seem set on having Terri dead..

[Petronski]

I have learned in the past couple weeks that FR has it's very own little death cult. It's very sad.

[Petronski]

Uncanny!

[PhilDragoo]

Even more prayers for her can only be a good thing.

Of course a bumblebee cannot fly--it is repeatedly demonstrated by simple aerodynamic calculations.

The world is flat and Judge Greer and George Felos will burn at the stake blasphemists to the contrary.

Right on, Salamander, you are the living proof that life is the Creator's handiwork for us to discover--and protect.

Man is a reed, a thinking reed, but that doesn't mean the state may come along with its reaper.

Harry Truman: Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.

A carpenter.

Mel Gibson re Terri: "Hammer Him with prayers."

[tertiary01]

This from posters who regulerly post on a 17000+ zotted poster thread.

[tertiary01]

regulerly=regularly

[Alamo-Girl]

I join in prayers for Terri and all who love her or are suffering over this!

[Kitty Mittens]

Prayers Continuing for our dear sister Terri, as we Wait for the Revelation of the Hand of the King of kings!

[Salamander]

It's late and I'm tired and telling my whole life story has left me drained so please excuse me for not having a clue what you're referring to....:)

[Salamander]

That's a passel of wisdom you've posted there, Phil...;)

[T'wit]

Well said. Thank you.