Surgery: Through the Neck & Into the Brain

The 20-year-old baker in the University of California hospital in San Francisco was dying of a tumor at the base of his brain. The swelling growth was pressing on the basilar artery, one of the brain's major blood suppliers, and eight of the main nerves in his skull were being compressed into uselessness. The patient's speech was garbled and slurred, he regurgitated much of the little he could eat, he had double vision, part of the right side of his body was paralyzed, and he suffered from fits of uncontrollable, inappropriate laughter....

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