Season 3: Episode 5: Hemispherectomy

Can you live with half a brain?

No, this is not an insult. It’s a real medical question.

In this episode of Tumor Minutes, Netra dives into hemispherectomy, a procedure where doctors remove or disconnect one half of the brain. It sounds like something that should absolutely not work… and yet, it does.

Used mainly for severe, drug-resistant epilepsy and sometimes for major brain tumors, this surgery can stop hundreds of seizures a day and completely change a patient’s life.

The episode covers:

• Why doctors would even consider this
• What actually happens during surgery
• How the brain somehow figures things out afterward

Spoiler: your brain is doing a lot more teamwork behind the scenes than you think.

If you’ve ever complained about being “half asleep” during class, just know… your brain could technically do a lot more with a lot less.