It was the
first day of sophomore year of high school and I was sitting in Mr. Ron’s
(don’t worry that’s not his actual name) algebra class. Usually on the first
day of class, teachers just introduce themselves; go over the syllabus and what
is expected of the class and the materials you should bring. After the usual speech, we were typically
free to just do whatever we wanted for the rest of the class period. This
introduction to the course however was much different than others, as Mr. Ron
took the time out to tell us that he had epilepsy and what we needed to do if
there was ever a time that he fell down and lost consciousness. He told us
about his struggle with epilepsy and the tags he wore around his neck to let
everyone know that he was seizure prone. I guess this was the first time that I
had ever encountered someone with the condition and was able to find out more
about it.
Epilepsy is
a disorder characterized by intensive recurring seizures. This disorder is caused by a decrease in
GABA, a neurotransmitter receptor, or damage done to it. Usually, medication
can control the seizures and their outbursts, but there are times when surgery
is necessary and many people affected by epilepsy may undergo a cutting of
their corpus callosum in the brain. The
cutting allows the seizures to remain in one hemisphere of the brain and the
seizures if any will only affect one side of the body. People who have this
operation done are referred to as “split brain people”; and even though they go
through such a drastic procedure they are still able to maintain their
intellect, motivation, and ability to walk. Although, life still remains a
daily challenge for them and their loved ones.
The movie
Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman, depicts the real life story of a man named
Kim Peek. Peek was actually missing his corpus callosum and as a consequence of
this particular misfortune, Peek was a well-known savant. He was able to
simultaneously read both sides of an open book and provide traveling direction
between any two cities of the world. He was known as the “living encyclopedia”.
The short video to follow, tells of the amazing genius that is Kim Peek.
Referring back to our previous learning module, if this were to happen to a younger patient say 4 years old, they would have a higher chance of growing up as normal as can be, but just with one side of the brain completely well and in tact. This phenomenon can be attributed to plasticity. Early detection is key when it comes to diagnosing for brain damages because at an early age, the brain is still developing and creating neurons and brain cells. It is a lot more malleable. And if we have the tools to detect early damage early enough, then normal living is highly attainable. Unlike detecting at a later age, like Kim Peek.
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard for people to have seizures throughout their life. Personally I’ve never known anyone to have seizures but I’ve heard so much information upon it. The struggles they have to face in life such as driving a car in traffic, going to work, or even going to school for students. Those sudden episodes must be terrifying to be thinking about all the time. One of the procedures discussed in our book, Split- Brain procedure, demonstrates and explains in context how this could be helpful to people in everyday life.
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