National Geographic: The Incredible Human Body Page #3

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bring consciousness.

But if these connections are

interrupted by disease or tumor,

the brain misfires

and electrical storms

can create havoc within.

Witner:
Mr. Toenies?

Yes.

My job here today

is to put these markers on.

Okay.

Okay? And they create a reference

mark on the MRI images.

Narrator:
Knowing the exact

location of the tumor is vital.

One wrong move in any direction

could leave Scott paralyzed,

remove crucial brain cells,

or worse.

Witner:
And you're all set.

Narrator:
The MRI scan shows

the location of the tumor.

But it is essential to identify

the specific functions

of the area it occupies,

and to do so

in three dimensions.

From these scans,

a startling 3-D visualization

of Scott's brain

is prepared for his surgeons.

This will enable them

to see inside from any angle,

as if his skull and brain

were transparent.

when I first came to Mayo,

I was doing some imaging,

early three-dimensional imaging,

and was talking

to a neurosurgeon,

and showed him

some of my visualizations

of the brain and the tumor.

And he told me something

I've never forgotten:

if I can see it,

I can fix it.

What you can see, is that

you can remove any plane you want to.

So if I want

to get the skull off,

and then I want

to get the covering off

and I want to move down,

I just hit buttons

that will move me down to

just the area I'm working on.

It's a totally different picture.

It's the same as walking inside a building,

versus standing on the outside.

Narrator:
Scott and Lisa

meet with dr. Frederick Meyer

who will perform

the difficult surgery.

Meyer:

Scott has a brain tumor

that's infiltrated through

the dominant part of his brain.

to the part of the brain

that controls movement

to the right side of the body,

and it's very close

to his language centers.

And it's sitting within an area

that helps initiate and coordinates

motor activity, movements.

We can see it starting...

this white area here,

this is the left

side of the brain.

This is all tumor here, and

here, and here, and here...

Okay.

Meyer:
...and here, and here.

Narrator:
The image grimly reveals

how difficult the surgery will be.

Scott's tumor is in a

particularly dangerous location

in the cerebrum,

the brain's outermost layer -

thought to be

the "thinking" brain.

The massive tumor lies between

the crucial regions controlling

speech and movement -

and it is perilously intertwined

with healthy brain tissue.

To avert damage to these areas,

the surgeons

will need to be able

to speak to Scott as they work

and that means

Scott will have to stay awake

through most of the operation.

It is his best chance

for a return to normal life.

Meyer:
This is

all very controversial.

I think it's

a very difficult decision.

I mean, it's an awful decision

that no one should have to make.

How serious is it?

If he doesn't have successful

treatment of his tumor,

whatever that treatment

is or consists of,

the tumor's going to kill him.

And he's a young man,

so it's deadly serious.

Lisa:
Those words just hit me

like a ton of bricks.

The things that ran through

my mind were my kids -

my family - and...is this gonna

be our last Christmas together?

Narrator:

It's been 10 days

and the big moment

for Inez nears

as she awaits the results

of her pregnancy test.

I just want to let you know

that your pregnancy test

was positive...

...which is wonderful.

Congratulations.

Inez:
Thank you.

All right. Okay.

Well, give me a hug!

Inez:
Yes, I was surprised. Yeah

but, you know, I saw everybody.

Nobody looked sad or anything

when I walked into the office,

And I said,

"It must be good news!"

So that kind of

gave it away a little bit.

Everybody was like, you know,

acting normal...

Too normal for me, you know,

and I kind of, like, said,

"I guess everything

must be okay."

Inez:
Hello?

What're you doing?

Mm... Hmm. Well, I got good news

for you. I'm pregnant.

Why are you laughing?

He said, "You're pregnant?

Ahhh!" And he was laughing.

He was like,

"Oh, that's so nice."

Sauer:

This is where the fun begins

because now we have

something to track.

It's real, it's a pregnancy,

That's what

everybody's been hoping for.

Watching this embryo

take form to a fetus,

and the fetus

hopefully later to baby

is really the fun part

of this job.

Thorton:
Now the first thing

you're gonna notice

is that right here

is the pregnancy sac.

Inez:
Okay.

Thorton:
Okay? And you see the little

area kinda fluttering right there?

That's the heartbeat

of the baby.

Inez:
Can I get

a picture of that?

Thorton:
I'm gonna give you

lots of pictures here.

Now, you have some...

god has truly blessed you.

You actually have two...

'cause you see,

There's one baby there, okay?

And then you see

the other baby over here.

Let me get a nice view.

Right there, you can see

the heartbeat fluttering.

See that? By the "x"?

So you have twins.

I hope that's good news.

Yeah!

Inez:
That was my first time

ever seeing a heartbeat,

So...that was, like, pretty

amazing. It's just a wonder.

You look at that

and you're like...

It's a living baby growing

inside of you, with a heartbeat.

That's when it

really hits you, yeah.

This is the

best shot, here...this one.

Gearhart:

It's during this period

where all of a sudden the

first system you see kicking in

is the circulatory system.

You see

blood vessels form,

The heart is in there beginning

to...beginning to beat,

and it's very critical, because

an embryo can only grow so large

Without it's own

circulatory system.

Narrator:
At 22 days,

the tiny heart -

no bigger than a poppy seed -

begins to beat.

Soon the embryo

is pumping it's own blood

through the umbilical cord

back to it's mother

for a fresh supply

of oxygen and nutrients.

Now just a simple tube,

this heart will grow into

a four-chamber structure

able to beat

In a 70-year lifespan,

the human heart will beat

three billion times,

which may explain why yogis like

to measure time not in days,

but in heartbeats.

NBA players count the minutes

they play on the court...

And on this night, the aerobic

limits of the Charlotte hornets

are being put to severe test.

They are competing in

what will be the longest game

in team history -

a triple overtime

that will force

even these top

professional athletes

to push their bodies

to the limits.

How do they do it?

Charging down the court,

they will pump

over 30 quarts

of blood per minute.

In that same minute,

even the most excited spectator

will move only about five.

Hawkins:
I think you feel

your heart beating, you know,

especially if it's

a pressure game,

or if you have

one of them spells

where you're up and down

the court a lot -

yeah, you can definitely

feel your heart,

and it feels like it's about

to come out of your chest.

Brown:
I think

if I could look inside my body,

or any one of my peers' body,

I just think our heart,

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