Woman with half a brain lives normal life (This isn’t normal? )
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Michelle Mack of Falls Church Virginia had learning and behavioural difficulties growing up (she is now 37 years old) and it was not until 10 years ago that an MRI scan revealed that she had the left side of her brain missing.
“We were surprised to see the extent of the lesion in her brain, which basically took away the left side of her brain,” said Dr Grafman. “There’s some very deep structures remaining, but the surface of her brain, the cortex is 95 percent gone and some of the deeper structures, structures that control movement, are missing. These are all structures that are important for movement, behavior, cognition.”
The diagnosis explained why Mack had experienced a lifetime of difficulty controlling her emotions.
“He’s helped us understand the reason why I tend to throw fits, temper tantrums,” she said. “It was because I was missing half my brain.”
Michelle Mack is now 37 and lives with her mother and father. She works from home doing data entry for her church. She is fairly independent, pays rent and can do most household chores. She realizes she’ll need help for the rest of her life but wanted to tell her story to make it clear that she is not helpless.
Source: cnn.com