The genius is on the left, the lunatic is on the right

Chapter 17 The Lost Left

"Her left side is gone, and only the right side is left in her life." Does this sentence sound full of horror?
Don't panic, I'm not reading a horror movie script for you, I'm talking about a person's "hallucinations."Her name is Emma, ​​a woman who has suffered a stroke and has severely damaged the right side of her brain and cannot see anything on the left side.Her left side was lost and her life was thrown into disarray.

Mrs. Emma suffered from a serious illness in her sixtieth year-a stroke, which was very serious and directly damaged her right brain. Since then, Emma's life has become a mess, but she is still as funny and humorous as ever.

The ward was sunny on Sunday, and Mrs. Emma jokingly said after waking up: "Oh, Nurse Susan, it seems that someone forgot my breakfast again today."

Susan looked back and said listlessly, "There they are, to your left, dear Mrs. Emma." Mrs. Emma was a little annoyed, thinking that the nurse was making fun of her, because she never consciously looked to the left.

Seeing that the nurse ignored her, Mrs. Emma had no choice but to turn her body slightly, and found that the breakfast was there, she was a little embarrassed, and said mockingly: "Oh, so it's here, the one who wasn't there just now .” Immediately there was a burst of laughter, which made the patients and nurses laugh too.

In fact, Mrs. Emma often makes such a mistake. As long as she turns her body slightly, she will see the missing left side, because the undamaged right half of the visual area can see everything on the right side.It's just that she didn't realize it herself. Since suffering from a stroke, Mrs. Emma has lost the concept of "left", and there are many jokes about this. Fortunately, she is optimistic and humorous by nature, which resolves the embarrassment.

Mrs. Emma has a big appetite, and it is very difficult to turn her fat body, which is why she is unwilling to move her body to look to the left.Once, Mrs. Emma was very hungry. When she saw the lunch in front of her eyes, there were only fried eggs and French fries on the right half. The food on the right, and then began to complain: "The standard of the hospital has dropped, such a small amount of food is not enough, I want to complain to you!"

This time, the nurse ignored it at all, which made Mrs. Emma even angrier.And when she saw the patient on the right bed laughing, and the sound of ridicule from the left, she felt very strange. Just as she was about to question them, the patient said: "Dear Emma, ​​the nurses know your appetite, so they won't give you less food." Yours, move the plate to the right."

Mrs. Emma did so, only to find that there was spaghetti and two sausages on the left side of the plate. "Wow, not bad, I'm too lazy to deal with you psychopaths, I'm going to continue to enjoy my lunch, haha!"

This is Lady Emma, ​​a woman who lost her left.Gradually, she realized her problem and wanted to work hard to overcome the situation.Since she couldn't look directly to the left, she couldn't turn left either, so she came up with a way, which was to turn right all the way and make a full circle, so that she could find the long-lost left side.

The medical staff also designed a wheelchair for her that can rotate, as long as she is conscious, she can easily find the missing left half.For example, when she couldn't find her food again, she would keep walking in circles until she found her coffee and bagel.Of course, Mrs. Emma will never be able to eat all the food on the plate, because no matter how much she turns around, there will be food left on the left.Every time she turns around, Mrs. Emma will eat the food on the right, but there will always be a little left on the left, so she continues to turn around and eat the food on the right until the food on the left is too small to be seen.

At first, Mrs. Emma's antics would make the patients laugh, but over time, the patients began to sympathize with her and stopped laughing.Fortunately, Mrs. Emma is optimistic by nature. When she is angry, she will curse a few words and make a joke and pass it by. She will never feel sad because of it.

For Mrs. Emma, ​​not being able to eat is not the most painful thing. What makes her most sad is the matter of makeup. After all, every woman loves beauty, and Mrs. Emma is no exception, but she can only wear makeup every time. Melt half of your face.

Every festival, the women in the ward start to get busy, all dressed up beautifully, and Mrs. Emma is also busy like them, but every time she finishes her makeup in advance, because her left cheek is always Plain.

In the face of the nurse’s kind reminder, Mrs. Emma was puzzled every time and said: “Everywhere you see is makeup!?” When the patients laughed at her, the optimistic Emma could no longer laugh, listening to her own Said that she was a beauty when she was young, and many people pursued her.

Seeing Mrs. Emma crying bitterly, the patients became quiet, and no one joked with her about this matter anymore, and everyone sent words of comfort.

The brain-burning logic of a genius or a madman
Mrs. Emma's condition, also known as neglect disorder, refers to a disturbance in apparent inattention or perceptual responses to one's own body or to objects within the field of vision.In this case, there is a tilt of attention and orientation, a disorder that involves different types of sensory, motor, and memory modalities, giving rise to a range of clinical manifestations.

It is easy to judge this kind of patients, just ask them to draw a picture, if the patient only draws the right side and ignores the left side, the diagnosis can be made.Physicians pointed out that such patients must continue rehabilitation treatment in order to fully restore normal behavior and function.

Hemi-neglect is just one of many types of neglect caused by brain damage, and there are many different types of neglect in neuroscience.

The types of neglect can be divided into motor neglect, sensory neglect, hemispatial neglect, and vertical neglect.

Patients usually only use one right hand to do things and make gestures, while the left hand is forgotten like an "idle item"; the affected arm does not swing or seldom swings when walking, just like half Parkinson's patients; When in a very uncomfortable position, it will also remain still for a long time.The lower extremity on the affected side does not respond even if it hits an obstacle; when the patient is asked to wear shoes alone, he usually only chooses to wear the healthy side and ignores the one on the affected side.

Ms. Emma's strange disorder is called hemispatial neglect, and because it's so uncommon, it's often thought of as a mental illness.

In recent years, the detection rate of unilateral spatial neglect has increased year by year, and nearly half of patients with stroke or brain injury may have this symptom. "This disease is not a strange disease, let alone a rare disease."Therefore, if someone in your life suffers from this disease, don't treat them as a weirdo or a mental illness. As long as 50% of the patients can be cured with effective treatment.

(End of this chapter)