Old Soprano pointed an old lady to her grandson and said "She had a stroke and lost half of her brain."
I, in front of the TV, was a bit shocked by what she said.
On Monday, which was four days ago, I sat in for an experiment. An old lady on a wheel chair was doing the line bisection task. This task requires the viewer to divide a line into two segments in equal lengths. Straightforward enough. No trick.
People who have damages in their right brain hemisphere usually divide the line into a longer right segment and a shorter left segment. It is a typical phenomenon, called unilateral spatial neglect, which is what I am working on currently. Patients have almost no problems seeing things. They have problems in controlling their attention. In this particular case, they have problems in their spatial attention.
The old lady was doing not very well, which was expected because she was a patient diagnosed with unilateral spatial neglect. She obviously could not put the intersect point in the middle of the line.
When I walked out of the lab, I saw a man sitting in the waiting room. Usually the care giver would wait there. I thought he was the old lady's son.
I did not pay much attention to the whole thing later. I just needed some real experience of seeing a patient to perform the task so that I could get some inspirations.
Four days later, which is today, I saw the old lady's brain scan images.
It was unbelievable. She lost literally half of her brain. 80% of her right hemisphere was gone. 20% of her left hemisphere was recently damaged too.
There are two major types of stroke.
One is that some blood vessels break. Lots of blood floods into brain. In this case, the treatment usually is to remove dead brain tissues. I know this sounds not good. I could help but shaking my head when Kim explained the situation.
The other type is that some blood vessels get blocked. Blood cannot go through the brain and thus brain tissues die. In this case, doctors wait for the natural mechanism kicks in by itself. That is, the brain will help itself to recover to some extent.
The old lady had blood flooding in her skull. Half of her brain was cut off. There was an obviously big dark hole, which was filled with CSF. She was not air-headed but water-headed. Seriously. Not funny at all.
Recently she had another stroke in her left hemisphere, which was also very visible on the image. I shook my head again. I could not link those images with the old lady in the lab.
How had she survived?
Labmates told me her husband has been on her side since the first episode of stroke.
The man I saw in the waiting room was not her son. He was her husband.
He actually was older than her. But because of her ill condition, she looked much older. She was actually not that old; 54 is not old.
Where is hope?
A person without half of her brain. Neurologically she is out of her mind too if mind is equal to brain as they claim. But she is not the same person apparently. She will never be apparently.
My job is to provide the hope. But I want to cry.
I am glad that I am not a clinical doctor. I had chosen not to be one. Good choice. Patients do not cheer me up.
Basic research with healthy people is a wonderful world. I should've stayed there.
Can she watch a movie again with this annoying spatial neglect?
Can she enjoy sitting in a movie theater again?
This question keeps popping up in my head just like when I was questioning new parents when was their last time going to a movie theater.
Life has changed. Dramatically. What can I do?
