House M.D. episode with top of head removed

N

noahfrancis98

New member
On House M.D. one of the episodes (Well, actually a few) they removed the top of someones head to look at the brain, whatever they were doing doesn't really matter.

My question is simple. If that happened to say, me. Or anyone for that matter - would the head fully heal and would you still be able to feel the nerves on the top or would it be numb, and never full heal?.

Thank you!.
 
The brain has no nerve endings. If you removed the skull and left it off it would eventually develop a membrane over it that probably would feel something.

I can give you 2 examples. I had a friend who was born missing most of her skull. It took over 20 years of slow bone grafts to finally give her a skull. Yes, she could feel her brain and it did hurt but of more importance was that even touching it could cause damage to the brain. She had to wear a fitted helmet 24/7/365 to protect her brain.

Last Christmas a friend's husband had a massive stroke of the type that is from bleeding, not clots. To allow the brain to swell they removed most of one side of his skull and covered it with a synthetic membrane. Once the swelling came down and he came out of the inevitable coma that accompanied the stroke, he felt very little as the covering was synthetic. Once his brain was back to normal size, the bone was replaced and his scalp pulled back over the bone. Areas of his scalp are numb from cut nerves that were not stitched back together for so long but where there was a continuous blood supply, the scalp remained normal. Had they not removed that area of bone, he would have died so some numbness in his scalp is nothing to him.

So it's an interesting question but one thing on House(favorite show)they never show them closing it back up....do they.

Hope neither of us ever has to find out the answer to your question on a personal level:D

Jenny
 
Great survival stories jennybyc. Sometimes these television shows the impossible but thanks to you and people like you on this board, these stories are remarkable. Thanks for the info and keep it coming.
 
Thank you, I sort of figured that was what would happen but was not sure.

I have urges to see my brain at times but then they pass and I sometimes want to hit myself for thinking of it :).
 
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