An 18-year-old boy Batu in Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia, is a cheerful teenager, who was not expected to be suddenly plagued by a strange disease in the past two years, and then, when the condition became more and more serious, the boy came to a hospital in Beijing for examination, but, to the surprise of people, the doctor actually found a strange thing inside the boy’s brain, and it is certain that this It is certain that this strange thing is definitely not a tumor or something as simple as that. What kind of relationship does it have with the boy’s illness?
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. It was a mess. The father, who was working at a distance, noticed his son’s abnormal condition and hurriedly dropped the work at hand and rushed over.
Batu’s disease attack is not any rule to find, before the onset of the disease is not any signs, regardless of time and place, simply not controlled by Batu’s will. Once the attack, are suddenly fallen to the ground, limbs twitching, foaming at the mouth, unconscious, and let the father more worried and fearful is that, later, Batou’s disease every 2-3 days will be an attack, the duration is also getting longer and longer.
Father: sometimes three or four minutes, sometimes five or six minutes, seven or eight minutes, and sometimes a little longer.
In order to cure his son, this year, the father took his son to travel around, around the doctor, but Batou’s disease is unusually stubborn, although eating a lot of drugs, but there is not much improvement, under a hundred desperate, the father took his son to a brain hospital in Beijing, doctor Zhang Hongwei felt that the boy’s disease is not ordinary.
Doctor: By the description of his symptoms, my mind first decided that he must be in epileptic seizures, and since his seizures were relatively light, less than 2 years old, and relatively young, so I further judged that it was a secondary epilepsy.
This kind of secondary epilepsy can be caused by many diseases, such as some tumors in the brain, such as cerebrovascular disease, cerebrovascular malformation. Could it be that these causes are what triggered Batou’s epilepsy? At the suggestion of Zhang Hongwei, Batu took x-rays. So, what were the results?
Doctor: After the results came out, it was also very surprising to me. When I looked inside the skull, I didn’t see any vascular malformation, and there was no tumor, for example, the medial temporal lobe can grow glioma, and then benign tumor, but this film did not.
The results of the film overturned Dr. Zhang’s previous speculation, but, if not a brain tumor, how was it caused?
Doctor: The first thing I asked him how old he was, the second thing I asked her where she was from, and he said from Inner Mongolia, so there was another feeling in my head that coming from Inner Mongolia, there might be some parasites in the brain, such as haunted cysts. This is with regional differences, such as Gansu, Inner Mongolia, these places, the incidence is particularly high. It is also possible that the secondary epilepsy is caused by parasites.
Cerebral cysticerci is a parasitic disease caused by lifestyle habits that can be very harmful, involving the eyes to cause blindness, and when it involves the brain, it can cause epilepsy like Batu’s. So, is Batou’s epilepsy due to some kind of parasitic disease? Just as Zhang Hongwei was examining the films carefully, he suddenly made a new discovery, a discovery that took Zhang Hongwei by surprise.
On the medial side of the temporal lobe, there was found a high brightness, a very distinct and uniform reinforcement of a signal, something very strange.
Dr. Zhang found that there was an oddly shaped bar between Batou’s brainstem, middle cerebral artery, and temporal lobe. This is obviously not a tumor or a parasite, what could it be?
Dr. Zhang: It was found that this object was black in the middle, and the black color was very regular, but the color of Zhou Wei was bright, and the brightness was not very uniform. Why would this condition occur? Hematoma, tumor, cerebrovascular malformation are not, there is only one explanation, this is a foreign body.
How could such a foreign body appear in the brain of a child who was only 17 years old and had never been out of the house? Dr. Zhang carefully examined Batu’s head, but did not find any scars left by trauma, no trauma, how did this foreign body enter Batu’s brain? Such a bizarre thing, not to mention others, is that Batu father and son find it hard to believe! If this thing did not enter through Batu’s head, then where would it have entered from? Just then, a faint scar on Batu’s right cheek caught Dr. Zhang’s attention
Father: playing as a child, stabbed down.
This scar, which was about to be erased by time, made Batu’s father recall an incident that happened to Batu 12 years ago: At that time, Batu was 5 years old.
That afternoon, Batu, who always liked to cling to his father, stayed home by himself and played with his brother in the courtyard while Batu’s grandfather went to collect cow dung not far away. Little Batu was jumping up and down with a small wooden stick about 15 cm long and one centimeter thick in his right hand, and no one expected an accident to be coming quietly.
The tragedy happened during the process of jumping down: Batu suddenly tripped over a stone and fell to the ground, when he landed, Batu still did not let go of the wooden stick in his right hand.
Father: the clothes were full of blood, crying.
The 14-centimeter-long wooden stick through the right side of Batu’s upper jaw, straight through the lower part of the right eye socket, and then diagonally across the skull midline, through to the opposite side of the brain stem side, a 14-centimeter-long wooden stick, leaving only about 4 cm of a small cut exposed outside Batu’s cheek. The grandfather who arrived later was stunned by the wooden stick stuck in Batu’s cheek. In a panic, then one hand pulled out the wooden stick.
Father: scared to get up, after pulling it out it does not bleed.
This accident, in addition to making Batu right eye almost blind, in later life, did not bring Batu other pain, so, with the loss of time, this accident gradually faded into oblivion. Will this memory of his father help Dr. Zhang in his diagnosis? Is this foreign body in Batu’s brain related to Batu’s injury when he was 5 years old? Dr. Zhang gave Batu a further CT, CT and x-ray film combined analysis, so that Dr. Zhang generated a bold speculation, Batu brain foreign body could be the year the stick was not pulled clean?
The doctor: we decided that it was possible that after the stick was pulled out by his father, a part of it remained in the brain, and then, after nearly 12 years, the stick caused some rocky reactions in the brain, wrapping the stick and forming a local rocky granuloma, and then, producing local epilepsy and generalized seizures.
The doctors analyzed from the diagnosis that what was in Batu’s skull was probably the small wooden stick from 12 years ago, and the culprit of the child’s seizures was the suspected wooden stick, and the only way to relieve the child’s pain and restore his health was surgery, however, this surgery was extremely risky. The main surgeon, Professor Yu Chunjiang, was under a lot of psychological pressure.
Experts: fear of affecting the brain stem, the patient may be impaired consciousness, not awake, is what we will be a vegetable. Another, afraid to affect his blood vessels, such as bleeding, the patient will appear hemiplegic, motor disorders.
We all know that the brainstem is the life center of the human body, it is in charge of this person’s breathing, heartbeat, the posterior cerebral artery is one of the most important blood vessels in the cranium, so doing this surgery means taking the risk of Batou becoming a vegetable and hemiplegia, but only 17-year-old children can withstand the test of craniotomy?
Father: I was scared at that time, but I thought if the child did well, he would do well, and if he did badly, he would do badly, as fate would have it anyway.
Professor Yu Chunjiang told us that the solid skull is like a natural helmet protecting our brain, but despite this, the brain is still vulnerable to all kinds of trauma. traumatic brain injury is a common cause of death and disability in people under the age of 50, and it is also the second cause of death in men under the age of 35. Among these, the chances of injury to children are even higher.
1, 2007, February, Hunan Yiyang a 6-year-old child playing with firecrackers, was injured by firecrackers, the ground was blown up stones, flying into his skull, the situation is very dangerous.
2, May 2007, a 2-year-old boy in Hubei, after eating a piece of watermelon, when adults did not pay attention, took a step out of the house. As a result, he slipped on the watermelon rind he had thrown and rolled down a ten-meter-long slope in front of the door. An iron bar was stuck into his brain.
3. In December 2007, a 5-year-old child in Henan Province, fell down while doing his homework, and the tip of a pencil about 6 cm long in his hand pierced into his skull through his left nostril, half in the eye socket and half in the skull.
Although the skull, the forehead, is often thick in the hand, there are still some thin parts, let’s say the two temples of a person, the orbit of a person, in addition, it is important to remind that the fontanelle of a small child, before the skull is closed, is open without the skull to protect it. Explanation: Because the skull of a child is as thin as an eggshell, a sharp foreign object can easily pierce into the skull. Therefore, when young children are playing, adults should strengthen their guardianship and do not leave children alone. If a foreign body is found to have pierced into the child’s body, it should be sent to the hospital immediately for treatment to avoid delaying the condition and causing serious consequences.
Intracranial foreign body, metal is more common, because metal is more sharp, easy to enter the cranium, such as bullets, iron bars, like this with a wooden stick is too rare.
Before the surgery, the doctors did not dare to slow down, they set up an emergency surgery team to analyze the feasibility of carrying out this surgery.
Experts: to discuss the implementation plan, first of all, to see from that place such as the most appropriate road, in addition, the surgical process, to take this foreign body, it involves which blood vessels, if the blood vessels just stick by it, this foreign body and can not be segmented cut, how to do? Discuss these issues and come up with a plan.
The location of the foreign body was really tricky, as it was right next to the brainstem and tightly attached to the posterior cerebral artery, which could have disastrous consequences if there was a slight error in the surgery. In addition, what is the other annoying thing? Unlike something that just goes in and can be taken out, this object had been in Batou’s brain for 12 years, and it had been wrapped and stuck to the surrounding tissues for 12 years. Can Batu stand the test of surgery?
This is a video Batu left to his family on the eve of his decision to undergo surgery: “I will come out safely.
Batou: I will come out safely.
August 20, 2007, was a very unusual day for Batu’s father and son, and a very challenging day for the chief surgeon, Dr. Yuchun. Because they had to remove the suspected stick from the 17-year-old’s skull, which had been sleeping for 12 years, after careful preparation, the operation began.
The first step was to perform a craniotomy.
Doctor: During surgery, we first removed the anterior temporal lobe, because only, removing this end with the hippocampal part can control the seizures.
However, when the medial side of the hippocampus was removed, the brain tissue became very hard and the surgeon could clearly feel that it was different from normal brain tissue.
The surgery became very intense because the doctors found that the foreign body was located exactly between the brainstem and the posterior cerebral artery, and it was quite tightly adhered to the blood vessels and even mildly adhered to the brainstem, so the doctors had to separate it little by little. Once these parts were affected, the consequences would be unthinkable. Outside the operating room, Batou’s father was uncomfortable.
Father: to the eleventh floor surgery door to take a look at, I do not know how many trips, this time, the child in the head can not be anxious, in the end what degree ah.
After six hours of long and anxious waiting, the operation finally ended successfully.
Experts: to the stage, everyone is a boiling, oops, what is this thing, hurry to him to open, in the end what is, we a nurse with a knife a pull open, layers break open, the last look, a careful identification, is a long time a wooden stick. This caterpillar-like thing is the stick that has been in Batou’s brain for 12 years, and the stick has really been wrapped in some fibrous tissue around it. Look closely, the color has been blackened. It was such a thing in Batou’s brain for 12 years, and the doctor lamented that it was a miracle for Batou. Batou was lucky, but the price of luck was the loss of sight in his right eye. Let’s review the two details of the accident: First, Batou’s grandfather, who pulled out the wooden stick raw, was very dangerous, because the brain structure is complex, it is easy to pull out unclean, leaving a cut in the brain. In addition, after the stick was pulled out, the father saw that there was no more bleeding, so he ignored it, and when two days later, the child appeared to have a high fever and coma before he was sent to the hospital. This approach is also wrong. In the event of a similar accident, parents should take the child to the hospital as quickly as possible to stop the bleeding and reduce inflammation. In areas where traffic is difficult, you can also call for help and minimize bumps in the road.
Alas, Batu’s story is truly incredible, and look at it, at the age of 5, such a big accident did not kill Batu. And in between these 12 years, such a 4 cm long wooden stick was able to make Batou live painlessly and without any feeling. In the end, it was such a risky operation that could be successfully completed. I have to say that this is really one miracle after another, but if we look at it from a pathological point of view, or understandable, a foreign body arrives in the brain, the brain has to start a series of defense mechanisms to exclude this thing, but he rejected not, it gives you closed, it is by wrapping in this way, I limit to a certain range, you do not take the negative this damage to the whole brain inside, so that If it is not zapped to a specific functional area, he may not develop it in this life.