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Weird news of the day: 14 March 2023
Shelley and Rob Wall, from Cumbria, in northwest England, were advised to terminate the pregnancy five times after finding out that their baby had “no brain.” Dad Rob said that many doctors believed his unborn son had not developed a brain.
Also read this below
The Strange Case of Noah, the Brainless Boy
Once again, reality surpasses fiction. When Rob, 50, and Shelly, 44, were told that their 12-week-old son would be born with a severe physical disability, doctors advised them to prepare for the worst.
Noah, as the couple’s baby is called, was born with virtually no brain. Initial X-rays revealed an abnormality in fetal development due to a dysfunction between spina bifida and hydrocephalus. The result: the combination of these medical complications
left him with only 2% brain function .
What is unusual is that, despite this significant deficit, Noah continued to grow and learn, a fact that has led to him being known as
a case of a “brainless child,” whose physical and intellectual development progresses surprisingly rapidly.
What is spina bifida and hydrocephalus?
Hydrocephalus
is a symptom of poor brain development, which is directly related to spina bifida. This is an excess of cerebrospinal fluid within the skull. Literally, hydrocephalus means “water on the brain.” In Noah’s case, the pressure exerted by this substance can cause the brain to not form properly, leaving much less room to develop.
Spina bifida, on the other hand, is a genetic degeneration that affects the malformation of the spinal cord, brain, or even
the meninges (the protective layer covering the brain). It’s a very common neural tube defect among babies , especially in Western countries, where some couples agree to conceive children in old age.
As incredible as it may seem, and despite the tremendous progress and exponential development of science and research, medical experts
still haven’t determined the exact causes of spina bifida . In other words, it’s a mystery.
Extensive studies and research have been conducted to address the problem, but no one knows what causes the neural tube to fail to close completely, resulting in the malformations mentioned above. Only a few scientists have identified environmental, nutritional, or even genetic factors to provide a solid approximation. The mother’s diet during pregnancy, the environmental environment, or genetic inheritance may play a crucial role in the baby’s brain malformation.
Why is Noah extraordinary?
“We started organizing and preparing for the funeral while I was pregnant,” the mother says. Doctors gave him not months or years, but days to live shortly after birth, and on several occasions they recommended an abortion.
Tests and X-rays showed that
Noah’s skull contained excess fluid , exceeding the normal amount of gray matter. To put it more clearly, the baby’s skull was no bigger than a grapefruit.
However, his parents pressed on and believed in their son. Although doctors gave him no more than three weeks to live,
Noah is on track to turn 5 , going from a brain capacity of 2 to 70%.
Not only is he able to walk, begin to talk, and play , but his development is also following a more than favorable course, destined to become a child of humanity. To this day, Noah’s case remains a miracle and is the subject of study for health professionals, university theses, and other research.
Other cases like Noah’s
Although unusual, Noah isn’t the only notable case.
Michelle Mack, around 40 years old, was born with half a brain . Interestingly, her anomaly wasn’t detected until she was 27, having lived a normal life and graduated from university.
Even more surreal and incredible is another case detected in the United Kingdom. An anonymous student at the University of Sheffield went to the doctor with a severe
headache. The doctor noticed that his head was slightly larger than normal for his age. He decided to investigate further and took an X-ray. The result was surprising: he had so much fluid in his head that it had practically obliterated his entire brain. But here comes the most extraordinary part. The student in question is a talented individual, with an IQ of around 140 and an honors degree in mathematics.
How do you explain the case of the brainless child?
Of course, statistics show that mortality among people with abnormally underdeveloped brains is much higher than average, and babies born with this type of severe neurodevelopmental problem often die before reaching adolescence. So… how do you explain Noah’s case? How could he survive without a brain? The answer is
something called brain plasticity .
This phenomenon consists of our brain’s ability to physically adapt to situations, developing in a way that allows for survival. Here, the key is not so much the number of neurons, but the way they are organized within each other. Thus, plasticity can be understood as a kind of computer program that learns in real time
to deal with entirely new problems for which it was not technically programmed (in this case, a combination of diseases). Does this sound like anything to you? It’s the same principle as intelligence, but on a neurological level.
Thus, Noah’s case is another example of how far the human body is capable of using its resources to stay afloat, even when the available means are less than expected, and how it is “building” a healthy organism for survival from there.
Source: maestrovirtuale.com
