Panasonic Youth rob sanheim writes about software, business, ruby, music, stuff and things

Living with Half a Brain

Hemispherectomy - the removal of one half of the brain, allows children with a certain type of epilepsy a chance at a normal life. An article in the New Yorker on this crazy, medieval procedure. The ability of our bodies and brains to adapt is just amazing.

(via mefi)

That is the most astonishing thing I have read in a long while. That you can actually survive this type of operation is pretty amazing.

From family experience I know that the human body can compensate for the loss of vital organs, but that this also applies to the loss of a brain hemisphere is still surprising for me.

I guess this is how people can survive gun shot wounds to the head, which you read about sometimes.