Imagine living most of your life and not knowing that you were missing an important body part. What would be your surprise, because it would seem like it should have had a big impact on your well-being, yet you didn’t notice anything like that? And that’s exactly the situation that American Michelle Mack found herself in.
Interestingly, but for a very long time parents could not understand what was wrong with their daughter. The fact is that the process of growing up and development of the girl was somewhat different from her peers. No, she did not suffer from cerebral palsy. But she had problems with spatial perception of reality. Michelle was easily lost indoors, and also could not completely control her own emotions.
At age 27, the girl was examined by Jordan Grafman, who determined that the girl was missing the left hemisphere of her brain. “We were surprised to see the extent of the lesion in her brain, encompassing almost the entire left hemisphere …
The cortex (left hemisphere) of the brain was 95% missing. Some of the deeper brain structures responsible for movement were also missing,” Dr. Grafman shared his observations.The most striking thing was that the right hemisphere seemed to take over some of the functionality of the missing part. This phenomenon led to the scientific discovery of the brain’s remarkable ability to “reprogram itself.
Of course, the absence of the left hemisphere could not go away, which is why the girl had problems with behavior and spatial thinking. But Michelle had an amazing ability to “juggle” numbers.
In one of the interviews the girl said that she considered herself absolutely normal, just because of the peculiarities of her body she sometimes needs additional care. She sincerely hopes that her story will help other people and her hopes are justified.