France: Brainless, mindless, senseless are words that best make for name-calling, except if it were true. In a rather astonishing incident, a 44-year-old government worker in France led his complete life without a brain, literally.
Not that he would have a clue, but the man realised he had a missing brain when he recently underwent a CT scan and MRI, ironically after he complained of some weakness in his left leg.
As amusing as it may sound, what the reports showed was nothing short of a miracle. The reports found that his brain was crushed against his skull, most likely from a childhood surgery to treat hydrocephalus (water on the brain).
Hydrocephalus is a medical condition in which there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain.
The married man who had two kids has slightly lower IQ than normal but led a normal life.
It was an amazing case for the doctors and found that the man who was complaining of some weakness in his left leg was actually missing most of his brain.
He was fit and wasn’t mentally or physically challenged in any way other than the weakness he had recently developed.
After a through check of his history the doctors noted that the unidentified man had suffered from hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, when he was six months old.
After scan, it has been noted by the doctors that his skull was mostly occupied by two massive cerebral cavities, also called ventricles, which was filled with fluid.
“It is hard for me [to say] exactly the percentage of reduction of the brain, since we did not use software to measure its volume. But visually, it is more than a 50 percent to 75 percent reduction,” neurologist Lionel Feuillet told New Scientist. “The whole brain was reduced—frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes—on both left and right sides. These regions control motion, sensibility, language, vision, audition, and emotional and cognitive functions.”
The man’s IQ was not low enough to be considered as mentally disabled and his IQ was 75, below the average of 100 where as his verbal IQ was 84 and his performance IQ was 70.
According to the doctors, the condition of the man normally wouldn’t have been compatible with life.
