Epileptic seizures can be devastating to a child. This is especially true when the epilepsy is severe, causing dozens of seizures each day. Sometimes these seizures cannot be controlled with medication, and the severity and sheer number of them begin to cause injury to the healthy parts of the brain. When this happens, a neurosurgeon may consider the drastic measure of completely removing the half of the brain where the seizures begin. This operation is called a hemispherectomy. It is performed only when a child is very young, because at so young an age our brains are much more adept at recovery and even reinvention.
During a hemispherectomy, the surgeon will cut away a portion of the skull and underlying protective tissue, sever all of the connections between the two sides of the brain, remove the unhealthy half of the brain, and replace the tissue and skull. The resulting cavity is left empty, filling with cerebrospinal fluid in a day or so. The first hemispherectomy was performed at Johns Hopkins University in 1923. Hopkins is still the major hospital for these procedures. The patient must be young for the procedure to be successful. The youngest patient was 3 months old, and the surgery is rarely performed on children older than 10 years old.
Personally, if I was told that my child needed to have half of his or her brain removed, I would be terrified. It seems like such an extreme measure, but is sometimes necessary to save the child in the long run. The good news is that our brains are such amazing organs, there are surprisingly good outcomes from this procedure. Recovery takes about 6 to 8 weeks, and the personality and memory of the patient is left remarkably intact. These individuals are high functioning and have age-appropriate language skills. Another positive outcome is that, once the debilitating seizures have stopped, the patient goes on to live a life that is much improved.
One study was conducted that compared individuals having only one brain hemisphere with individuals with intact brains. The team thought they might find weaker connections in the participants with one hemisphere, since our brain connections usually involve both the right and left sides of our brains. Instead, they found surprisingly normal connectivity. In fact, the surgery patients often had stronger connections than those in the group who had intact brains. One young man who had a hemispherectomy went on to become a state chess champion.
Not surprisingly, there are a few down sides to this surgery. You probably know that the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and vice versa. After the removal of one side of the brain, the patient loses vision in the eye on the opposite side of the hemispherectomy. They also lose much of the function in the arm on that side. However, choosing between these handicaps and suffering dozens of brain-injuring seizures each day is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a no-brainer.
Of course humans can function with half a brain. We have examples in Congress – Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, and Schumer to name but a few.
Charles, you’re being far too generous. A half a brain is stretching it just a bit.
Bless their little hearts…..they are so sick.
Liberals have done that all their lives!!
Dimocrats have been doing it for years.
Yes you can live with Half a Drain…Look at the Dimocrats in the Congress..There is two Hundred Plus examples..
YES you can live with half a Brain the Dimocrats in the US Congress is a GREAT EXAMPLE.
Political candidates have proven that already and they haven’t had half of their brain removed either.
Adam Schiff is living proof……….
Of course a human can live with half a brain and less because Democrats have been doing that for decades. For Example look at their behavior concerning President Trump.
Democrats have been living with half a brain for years
Can Humans Function with Only Half a Brain? Sorry, but this seems like kind of a stupid question to me. Just look at the Democrats who are running for president and the people who are supporting them and you have answered this question!!
The Liberal DemocRAT Party is LIVING PROOF that you can still function with only Half a Brain. There Half a Brain must contain the HATRED GENE in them
Rep. Adam Schiff appears to had a hemispherectomy at SOME point in his adult Life…..
Apparently they can. Consider the people we have in Congress.
Of course they can. The Democrat House of Congress does it every day .
Can Humans Function with Only Half a Brain?
Of course. Politicians do it all the time.
Democrats do it all the time, with just a brain stem!
Can humans live with half a brain/ Democrats do all the time…
Donald Trump proves humans can function with both halves of the brain gone.