A 24-year old Chinese woman decided to visit a doctor after episodes of nausea and vomiting only to find out that she has been missing a huge and important part of her brain.
The unnamed Chinese woman is now the talk of town in the context of medicine on the internet today. After getting checked for having recurring episodes of vomiting and nausea, the doctors who attended to her discovered that she has been missing her cerebellum after the woman underwent MRI and CT Scans.
The doctors said that in lieu of a cerebellum the space in the woman's brain, which is supposed to be where the missing brain part should be nestled, is filled with cerebrospinal fluid. No remnants of the missing brain part were found and after further examinations of the woman's brain her doctors came to the conclusion that she was born without it.
The cerebellum is in-charge of a majority of motor functions in the body. Missing this part of the brain is expected to result in severe motor difficulties. In fact, the other reported cases where the cerebellum has been missing, the individuals who were affected did not survive. While they were alive they had severe episodes of epilepsy and mental disabilities.
This woman, however, seemed to live a normal life through all of her 24-years. Though she did not walk until she was four and has walked with a limp ever since and has difficulty in properly pronouncing certain words, the woma lives a normal life nonetheless.
Because of this, doctors came to the conclusion that the human brain is able to survive and compensate for a missing part through the coordination of those parts that remain intact. There is an amazing flexibility and coordination that is going on inside this woman's brain, doctors say.