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September 15, 2006

Strange But True!

Q. Gruesome accident: Trying to beat an approaching train, J. E. gets his foot stuck in the tracks, and his left arm is torn off, his right hand mutilated. Quandary for the doctors: Could a left hand from J. E.'s orphaned arm be attached to his right arm and become functional?

A. This really happened. Carefully the surgeons attached the hand to the right wrist, intricately weaving and criss-crossing critical tendons and nerves to assure that when J. E. meant to move his thumb he wouldn't have to think about moving his pinky and vice versa, says David Wolman in “A Left-Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of All Things Southpaw.” With his thumb to the outside and smallest fingers closest to his body, J. E. looked as if he'd swung his arm around like a contortionist. He had to relearn doing even the simplest things such as putting on a wristwatch. Fascinatingly, the brain has the plasticity to adapt, able to control a left hand via the right-hand nerve center of the brain.


 
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