Rupture: A Matter of Life OR Death Page #4

So it looks like, when he makes a command,

that the paralysed arm comes to life and starts moving.

Obviously, it's not actually moving, it is lying paralysed.

Astonishingly, it gives the illusion that the paralysed arm is moving.

Many of them break into tears until they look on the other side

of the mirror and realise it's not moving.

But then, with repeated practice, the arm actually starts moving,

a paralysed arm.

Not in all the patients, but in about one third.

I claim that some of this which we regard as permanent

is actually temporary.

There are cells that are dormant there, inactive.

Using mirror feedback, you can revive the function

of these cells so the patient actually starts moving his arm.

Now we believe there is hope.

Now we believe we can teach the immune system how to

turn on those signals to regenerate those areas of the human brain.

It's very similar to if you imagine that you get a cut on your hand,

it is actually your immune system that tells your skin stem cells

to either turn that area where you were cut into a scar

or to heal it and regenerate it so that you never see the scar.

So, we are beginning to understand that the same process

occurs in the human brain.

And the more we understand about those immune cells, the more we can,

hopefully, direct that regeneration in the direction that we want.

Now, I think an accident

of whatever level that gives you this kind of disability,

um...

makes you appreciate more life and be less sort of anxious

about making it.

So, show where they operated.

They took out from... they went in first...

- My first operation was just to go in and clamp the aneurysm.

- Mm-hm.

So they took out some of my skull here, went in, clamped it

then put the skull back.

And now... That first operation I had tubes coming out,

but, you know, just a little scar.

So, you had one big aneurysm.

I had one big bleed.

That was operated on, clamped. That was on a Friday.

Then Saturday came and they were doing the cognitive question

and answers, they were watching my pressure.

I did not remember this at all. It's the only part that...

- I guess I started to slip away.

- So why?

Why did you have a second operation?

Because my brain started to swell and so the pressure

in my cranial area was, you know, being affected,

and that's very dangerous.

So, they had to do an emergency surgery to remove

half of my skull to allow my brain to swell.

So, what they did is they opened up from here all the way back

to here and they removed pretty much this half of my skull here.

From here.

And they stored it... and they stored it

in my abdominal wall.

This is a model of a patient's skull who had a fall.

So, at surgery, we had to remove a good-sized piece of the skull

and remove blood there.

And the patient had a fair amount of swelling and some trouble,

so we had to leave the skull off.

So, you have either the option of trying to keep the piece

of skull, like store it in the abdomen,

like in this layer under the skin where it can stay vascularised...

Some places will store the bone in a freezer

and then it can be re-implanted.

The disadvantage of that is it tends to kill a lot of the bone cells

that are in there.

Then I came home after that to recuperate for about two months

and then go back and put the skull back.

And so, when all that is kind of,

"OK, well, we're going to put you back.

"Before long, it's going to grow over.

"You're not going to even see your scar."

I kind of have a sense of loss

because I feel it was a gift that was given to me.

Now, how long has it been since the third operation?

It will be...

Oh, it was July 1, three months today.

You know, it's a new normal, and it's finding your footing,

how you can, you know, feel like...

I want to go back out into the world.

I have a lot to say.

I am so grateful, you know,

that I want to be able to be this very productive person now.

Not that I wasn't before, but now it's just different, now it's new.

Everything is... I want to look at everything.

Everything looks so beautiful.

Maryam is my wife.

And I experienced her whole saga

of her headaches for weeks and weeks

and weeks and then this violent attack that she had.

And it was terribly important that I didn't convey my pain to her.

And this is something that often is forgotten about - families,

husbands and wives, children of the brain sufferer.

You can't transmit your fears, you have to be positive,

you have to be up, you have to boost the morale

and show hope where often there may not be hope.

It's a very, very, very painful thing.

It was a sensation unlike anything I have ever experienced, obviously.

It was almost a sort of out of body experience.

It was as if the life was being literally sucked from me.

It was as if my body was made of tubes

and a great vacuum inside of me was actually sucking life out.

I remember saying to Bella,

"If I faint, I won't come back."

Because I had the feeling that I was on the edge of some...

something very extreme, you know, and very worrying, very alarming.

And I called the doctor immediately

and he called back and said, "I think you better call

"the ambulance just in case it's a subarachnoid haemorrhage."

Which is what it was.

Your prospects are pretty low, I mean, it's something like 10%

or less of survival.

And there are various factors in this.

I mean, not only is it the bleeding that can kill you,

but the operation can kill you.

And then, as I discovered,

this extraordinary operation they did, which was to float

a piece of titanium from my groin through the blood vessels,

up into my brain here, through the tiny little filaments,

and then release a spring and so on. I mean, incredible.

And this has its dangers because as they're doing it, bits of artery,

I'm afraid to say,

can chip off and float down and block your heart, give you a stroke.

That's part of the 10%.

Then you can get, you know, for a week you can get

sort of a brain reaction of shock and spasm, which also...

So I...you know, I won that lottery.

And it made me think various things.

One, I'd completely dropped any regrets about my life,

you know.

You know, ideas that, you know, I could've done that or

I should've done that or I should have been a New York correspondent

or I should... You know, forget about that.

The idea was that you'd actually survived, you know,

and, you know, he and I could play.

Wonderful. So, it was a bit like the Samurai.

You know, the Samurai warriors have this Zen thing which is that

because imminently they might be cut down in combat,

every breath is a sort of elixir, a sort of wonderful thing.

And I completely understand that,

and I do get that sort of feeling, you know.

And I... Almost always when Jimmy says we should play, I say yes,

except when I'm, you know, downtime.

Yeah?

And now you are writing a book.

Yeah.

Which is about a man who's having a brain aneurysm.

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