Man goes to doctor with a sore leg, realises he has half a brain
It is thought the man lost 50% to 75% of his brain
A man went to hospital with a sore leg and discovered he only had half a brain.

The bizarre discovery was made after the 44-year-old dad went to hospital in France complaining of a weak leg.

Doctors were left baffled at how the man, who has not been named, had survived.

This had led scientists writing in the Lancet medical journal to the conclusion that a person’s intelligence and brain size are not as related as once thought.

Doctors made the discovery after he went to hospital with a sore leg
Lionel Feuillet, who studied the man’s brain, told the New Scientist: ‘The whole brain was reduced — frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes — on both left and right sides. These regions control motion, sensibility, language, vision, audition, and emotional, and cognitive functions.’

Doctors discovered that the man had been diagnosed with postnatal hydrocephalus or water on the brain at six-months-old.

At the time doctors applied shunts to his head which drained some of the fluid.

The shunts were removed when the patient was 14 and it is thought for the next 30 years fluid continued to build in his brain and slowly break down brain matter until he lost beteen 50% to 75%.

Remarkably the man has lived a normal life without realising he had the problem, with a family, two kids and a good job as a civil servant.

The only issue he had was a slightly lower than average IQ.

Since the discovery in 2007 doctors have drained much of the brain fluid.

Following an eight year study of the man’s condition scientists believe he survived because his brain reorganised itself over time.

As bits of the brain died other parts took on the jobs the dead bits used to do.

And his leg? That’s better too.

Remarkably the man has lived a normal life without realising he had the problem, with a family, two kids and a good job as a civil servant.

The only issue he had was a slightly lower than average IQ.