National Geographic: The Incredible Human Body Page #6

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the stimulation then, okay?

Narrator:
Electrical impulses will

briefly shut down brain activity

in the specific area

being tested

allowing dr. Meyer

to see how far he can cut

without significant loss.

A few millimeters to the left

could impinge speech,

a few millimeters to the right

could impede movement.

Meyer:
On...

Scott:
Numb...numb...

numb...my arm...

Soo:
Numbness of the arm...

There's a jerk

at the forearm and the elbow.

Meyer:

This area caused movement

of his arm, his hand, his

fingers and thumb, all in here.

And it's always amazing,

I think, to all of us,

that such a little part of

the brain has so much function,

sort of a miraculous thing.

Narrator:
It will be hours

before Lisa will hear any news.

Lisa:
I could sit for maybe

but then I would have

to do something else.

I tried to keep myself occupied

but it was hard.

I kept looking at my watch

and... I was scared, very scared.

Narrator:
As dr. Meyer

cuts with his scalpel,

dr. Duffy keeps a vigil

to verify that language

is not lost.

Duffy:
"Please sit down."

Scott:
Please sit down.

"They raise good potatoes."

They raise

good potatoes.

"Will you answer the telephone?"

Will you answer the telephone?

Scott:
Acorn...whoa, my leg,

my leg, my leg, my leg...

Duffy:
Your leg?

Scott:
...My leg, my leg...

it's tightening up.

Duffy:
He feels

tightness in his right leg.

Meyer:
Okay.

Duffy:

Spell the word "watch."

Scott:
w-A-T-C-H.

Duffy:
The word "yellow."

Scott:
Y-E-Yell...

y-E-Yell...y-E-L-L-O-W.

Meyer:
Is everything okay?

Soo:
The right leg is getting

a little bit weaker.

Scott:
That one

got a lot weaker.

Meyer:
A lot or a little?

Scott:
A lot.

Soo:
It's about moderate.

It's about a minus two.

Meyer:
Okay, so we'll stop

our re-section in that area.

Your speech is just fine,

obviously. Your arm's okay,

But we're not gonna resect any

more in that leg region, okay?

For what it's worth, Scott,

We're getting a very big

removal of your tumor.

Scott:
Okay.

Meyer:
I think

if we go any more,

we're gonna really probably

guarantee giving you a paralysis,

And I don't think

that's a good trade-Off.

If I were in your shoes,

i'd want me to stop.

Meyer:
What patients go through

is really an awful event.

It's an awful experience.

And I think it's helpful

for them to visually see...

"Gosh, this was in me

and now it's out."

Duffy:
Can you see that?

Scott:
Yes, I can.

That's the tumor, huh?

That's the tumor.

Cool. Okay...

Okay? All right.

Seen enough, huh?

Meyer:
Ah, there you are.

He's doing just fine.

Everything went as well

as we could hope for.

It looks like

well over 90 percent

of the tumor's been removed,

which is better than I thought

we would do, as you know.

In terms of his function, um,

I think it's sort of as

I predicted to you, but better.

His language is fine.

His arm's normal...

Lisa:
I was very nervous when

dr. Meyer came and talked to us

Because I was expecting

dreaded news.

But as he kept talking, it kept

looking better and better...

Got a little bit

of the brick off my shoulder.

Meyer:
We would never say

that this is a cure,

but, I think, in terms

of the spectrum of things,

I think what we did today

has given him a good shot

to try to beat it.

Meyer:
Okay? Okay,

we'll let you be.

Lisa:
I was scared to see him,

what he would look like.

I walked around the corner slow

because I knew what was ahead,

but I didn't know.

I expected his face

to be swollen up

and on oxygen

and things like that,

but when I saw him, I was, like,

relieved. I could handle it.

Hey, you...

You made it.

Scott:
What I'm feeling right

now is...a little headache.

A little headache?

Yeah.

Lisa:
He sounded very good.

He squeezed my hand

and it was pretty tight

for having some weakness

from the swelling.

Narrator:
Having come

very close to facing death,

Scott is able to speak and move.

Without awake surgery

and the images that rendered

his brain transparent,

the result might have been

disastrously different.

Lisa:
It's good

to see him smile 'cause he's,

you know... it's been hard

for him to smile lately.

Lisa:
I love you.

I love you, too.

Narrator:

Six months later,

Scott returns to teaching

and coaching football.

Someday, his children's

generation will inhabit a world

where the leaps of science that

saved him will seem commonplace,

surpassed by new ones

now unimaginable to us.

Coffey:
Each time a tool

comes into place,

it expands what we can do.

It's like the internet;

it constantly is expanding.

So what I have seen happen in my

lifetime in biological science

is the change from a horse and

carriage to a space shuttle.

The computer changes are minor

compared to what

we've been able to see

change in

biological understanding.

Narrator:

for Inez and Darryl,

This understanding

has begotten two lives -

lives that quickly reveal

their own resilience.

Born prematurely

by emergency caesarian,

Kayla and Kasim Pearson

spend their first weeks

in the hospital,

but soon grow

healthy and strong.

Coffey:
Is it magic?

It's like when you hold

your baby for the first time.

You could say, "oh, this is

just DNA dividing cells..."

Wait a minute -

this is pretty amazing.

This goes beyond

just a simple dividing DNA.

Where in here does something

become "miracle or magic?"

A human, when it

all comes together,

makes something that's more than

the sum of it's parts.

And that something

is consciousness,

is the ability to store

information, to think,

to create, and

to conceive the universe.

This is the mystery

of the human.

We do not know

what the human potential is.

Everything we think

is a roadblock

to what a human can do

physically and mentally,

Is proven to be wrong.

And this just means the

limitations that we have set

can be overcome.

by blueeyeddevil. Thanks DrDave.

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