Question: I've heard people can live with half a brain. How is that possible?

Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

I’m not a neurologist or brain surgeon but humans can “survive” quite a lot of brain damage to large portions of the brain.

This is quite a controversial issue though because, by “survive” we often mean “keep alive” using all sorts of technology (like breathing machines, kidney and liver machines, feeding tubes etc). We can do this even for pepole in a coma who are in a permanent vegetative state.

What really matters, though, is not physical survival, but the extent of the neurological recovery (brain recovery). Doctors have to consider this from the patient’s perspective, rather than just the wishes of the family.