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Case Study: Temporal Lobe Seizures

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2. Chapter 17 describes a patient, Bhagawhandi P., a girl who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor when she was 7. Doctors were able to remove the tumor successfully, however it grew back and by the time she was 18 she was admitted into hospice. At the begning of her stay at hospice she experienced grand mal seizures, eventually these turned into “dreamy” temporal lobe seizures. Whenever one of these seizures occurred, Bhagawhandi experienced reminiscence—she experienced visions of her life in India. Oliver Sacks is unsure if these visions where caused by the temporal lobe seizures of by the massive doses of steroids she was taking, but the steroids where keeping her from lapsing into a coma so she remained on the drugs. These dream states …show more content…
He killed his child while on PCP and was unable to remember this event. His behavior is much life the acts of violence committed during temporal lobe or psychomotor seizures because he had no memory of the event and no intention of violence. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital for the mentally insane and welcomed the sense of punishment; he felt secure in isolation. Eventually, Donald started to assist with the gardening which led to him receiving parole. While out on parole Donald purchased a bike, he got in an accident while riding one day and suffered a severe TBI to the frontal lobe. This injury caused him to access the memory of committing his daughters murder, which was previously repressed. The reminiscence he was experiencing was causing him to relive this moment over and over again. Facing this memory was unbearable to Donald and he tried to kill himself twice and for his safety had to be restrained. Sacks postulated that uncovering this memory could have occurred due to the trauma to the frontal lobe, which might have ceased the repression of this memory. Eventually, Donald make a recovery, he is almost normal due to anticonvulsants, psychotherapy, and returning to gardening. The memory of the murder has also been

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