The brain rewires itself.
"The brain rewires itself. "
You are correct about that one, but then this case with Terri has everything to do with euthanasia, can't be bothered by the facts here. Hey, it was the youth from asia that did us in in 2001 now we have euthanasia knocking on our back door here in the US. Keepin' up with our neighbors in Europe. What bothers me is not only is Michael Kevorkian getting away with murder, then a precedent is set for other spouses with less than pure motives.
Not when is liquid.
From the article:
Neurons do not grow back. The brain can rewire itself so that remaining healthy tissues take over functions that had been done by the cells that died. But if that were happening, it would have shown in Schiavo's behavior by now, said Dr. Michael T. Pulley, an assistant neurology professor at Shands Jacksonville Hospital, affiliated with the University of Florida medical school.
In some cases it can, but it usually requires some brain matter to actually rewire.
I have witnessed this myself in my mother who had an abscess the size of a lemon removed from the lower right occipital lobe. It will be two years in June. The growth literally tore optical nerves from their circuits causing partial blindness on the left sides of her eyes - just like those "lights" were unplugged. The "expert" Neuro-Opthamologist swore she would never regain any field of vision.
Guess what - it gets better each time she is tested every three months.
For a while, she was disoriented, confused, almost childlike and I felt as though I would be caring for a perpetual toddler after the surgery. The Medical doctors said that would probably be the case.(PCP, neurologist, neurosurgeon, psychiatrist). Her forgetfullness factor was the worst thing - she couldn't cook for fear of leaving something on the stove to burn, forgot to take meds and baths unless reminded OVER and OVER, would walk into a room and forget what she went in there for. It was heartbreaking to watch her frustration, because she was well aware of what she lost due to the craniotomy.
When someone suggested we see a Neuro-Psychologist, things changed dramatically for the better. He explained how the brain rewires itself, but it takes a little work. He recommended walks, listening to music, playing more Boggle on the computer (one of my mom's pre-op favorites....post-op, she didn't think she should even try due to eyesight and mental function - I am proud to report that she called me last night to tell me that she has one of the highest ratings!). He told her to paint. . .all the suggestions were right brain expressive things. Meanwhile, the left brain mental things like paying bills, keeping track of dr. appts., managing medications, insurance crap, etc. seriously overwhelmed her, when in the past, she was a whiz with it.
Through the expression of the eye-hand/ physical "exercises", she can now handle "the math" of life (and does OK). She is living independently, which is amazing if you saw what she was like the first 9 months. She is only 1/16 as forgetful as she was. Her paintings, post-op, are entered in shows and she has a waiting list for her works.
By my own testimony, I have experienced first-hand that the brain DOES rewire itself. And all those docs who said she'd be a "three year old" forever didn't know squat.