Prayers for Mark Part 3

Discussion Open Forum
41

[quote=“jdsmith”]Article in the Chinese paper today. Mark is going back to the States?

Any confirmation on this?[/quote]

Sure, can confirm it’s BS…

Well, it’s been a year. A hard year.

Mark has shown some interesting improvements, under the care provided by his new caregiver. She pushes him daily, and it’s showing results. He can now grab objects under command, and he’s even gone as far as putting a cup of water to his mouth. But they are small steps, and for the most part Mark remains in much the same condition he was in months ago. His immune system remains weak, and he is constantly hacking up copious amounts of sputum. It’s hard work communicating with someone who you can almost be assured is comprehending, but just out of it enough to make you wonder.

With the bedspace hopping routine coming to a close (his insurance coverage to a large extent will expire) Mark’s next step is to return home to his apartment in Chungli. The challenges facing his spouse from here on in seem insurmountable, yet she keeps plugging away. I hope I can keep up the visitation after he returns home…

I’ll probably start upgrading this thread weekly once more. There is an article of some kind coming out tomorrow, kind of a “One year later, now what”? sort of thing.

Still no definitive way to communicate with him, no primer has been discovered. I hope that changes soon.

9/27/07

MJB

42

The part of the brain that is responsible for speech comprehension is a completely different place than the part of the brain that is responsible for speech production, even though they are both in the left hemisphere.

The area that is responsible for speech comprehension is called “Wernicke’s Area.” The area that is responsible for speech production is called “Broca’s Area.” Here is a picture of where these areas are:

If someone had severe damage to his Broca’s Area but no damage to his Wernicke’s Area, then he would be able to comprehend language but completely unable to produce any kind of language, even unable to answer simple yes/no questions by blinking his eyes or moving his fingers.

I don’t know what part of Mark’s brain got damaged, but since he seems to be able to comprehend language (simple commands, anyway) but unable to answer any questions or produce language in any kind of way, it seems like he must have damage to his Broca’s Area, but not his Wernicke’s Area. (But if he can only understand simple commands but not complex sentences, then he probably also has damage to his Wernicke’s Area, but just minor damage, not as severe as the damage to his Broca’s Area.)

Well, I am certainly not a neurologist, so I might be wrong. But it seems like a probably explanation, anyway.

In people who do not have a tracheal incision (a hole in their throat because of having a tracheotomy, like Mark has), phlegm from your lungs constantly moves up your trachea, pushed up by thousands of hair-like cilia. Then when it gets to the back of your throat, you unconsciously swallow the phlegm. But if you have a tracheal incision in your throat (like Mark has), then you can’t swallow your phlegm because there is a balloon in the tracheotomy tube to prevent air from going the wrong direction (up into the mouth). Since there is a balloon in the throat right under the tracheotomy hole, I don’t think the phlegm can get all the way up the trachea in order to go down the esophagus into the stomach. In addition, for people who have a tracheal incision, the air which goes into their throat has not been filtered or warmed like it would have if the air had been inhaled through the nose or mouth. So this causes the trachea and the lungs to get inflamed (i.e., pneumonia).

Again, I’m not a doctor, so I could be wrong about this. But this is what I’ve learned from reading articles at the Wikipedia anyway.

43

I spoke to Mark’s mom, and it is almost impossible for him to go home. He isn’t stable enough for any airline to take that kind of risk. Plus his ticket will be extremely expensive because of the care and space he needs.

Also, back home he is a nobody…here in Taiwan his fame still helps bringing in some news coverage, maybe some donations…

44

Mark is back to Guei Shan Chung Gang Rehab Center since yesterday. Now he is in the South Building 3rd floor 3A17B. But he will be moving to a 3-bed room on Sunday.

Right now, Mark is suffering lung infection with fever, and he’s on anti-biotic day one today. Hopefully he can get this fever away in the next a couple of days.

He went visited Dr. Hsu, who is his neurology surgery doctor, and he thinks Mark has improved a lot and it is possible to put the artificial skull back in at any time after he’s gotten rid of his fever.

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[quote=“JLS”]Mark is back to Guei Shan Chung Gang Rehab Center since yesterday. Now he is in the South Building 3rd floor 3A17B. But he will be moving to a 3-bed room on Sunday.

Right now, Mark is suffering lung infection with fever, and he’s on anti-biotic day one today. Hopefully he can get this fever away in the next a couple of days.

He went visited Dr. Hsu, who is his neurology surgery doctor, and he thinks Mark has improved a lot and it is possible to put the artificial skull back in at any time after he’s gotten rid of his fever.[/quote]

Thanks for the update, JLS.

Thanks MJB too.

46

This photo taken in July shows the area of the injury:

Link removed by moderator

The photo is from website Mark’s sister created (correction: created by JLS).
It is certainly a good place to get the latest news:

markselikoff.spaces.live.com/

-sf

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[quote=“Surf Punk”]
This photo taken in July shows the area of the injury:

Removed by moderator

The photo is from website Mark’s sister created. It is
certainly a good place to get the latest news:

markselikoff.spaces.live.com/

-sf[/quote]

Hello Surf Punk…We’ve tried not to directly link photos of Marks injury as they can be rather graphic. I’ve deleted the link. For those interested, just go to the website. Marks Mom has always been a bit uncomfortable having these types of photos too public, so we’ve tried to respect that privacy here on the site at least.

The website is a good source of information but look closely and you’ll find a large number of the posts are taken directly from here. That is no coincidence, as the site was created and maintained by someone other than Mark’s sister, although the family certainly does contribute.

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In the photo of his home visit, the one with that big ol cat on his lap…Ya know…it looks like he’s trying to smile a bit…wow.

Is he getting any animal therapy visits?

That might be good thing for him. Animals can communicate in some very basic ways.

God Bless and Mark and his family is still in my prayers.

49

I don’t think pictures of Mark Selikoff are offensive at all, so I don’t think they should be deleted unless Mark’s sister, mother, or wife (or the moderator) thinks they are offensive.

I haven’t seen Mark in person yet, but from the pictures I have seen of him, it’s obvious that his Broca’s Area is totally gone. However, I’m not sure about his Wernicke’s Area because that is above and slightly behind the left ear, and the pictures of him are usually the front view, so I can’t see that far back.

To see the extent of the damage to his Wernicke’s Area, you can test his language comprehension by asking him a complex sentence like this “If you think the round peg can fit in the square hole, then squeeze it in there, but if you think it can’t fit in the square hole, then put the round peg in the round hole.” If he understands a complex sentence like that, then he probably doesn’t have any damage to his Wernicke’s Area.

Maybe when someone visits Mark, they could talk to his neurologist and find out more about the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain so that we can know what we can expect Mark to be able to learn. I only know what I’ve taught myself from reading lots of websites about brain anatomy, so I certainly can’t claim to know anywhere near as much as a neurologist would know.

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[quote=“Mark Nagel”]I don’t think pictures of Mark Selikoff are offensive at all, so I don’t think they should be deleted unless Mark’s sister, mother, or wife (or the moderator) thinks they are offensive.
[/quote]

Are you seeing some kind of ambiguity in MJB’s post there, Mark? I don’t see any.

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[quote=“sandman”][quote=“Mark Nagel”]I don’t think pictures of Mark Selikoff are offensive at all, so I don’t think they should be deleted unless Mark’s sister, mother, or wife (or the moderator) thinks they are offensive.
[/quote]

Are you seeing some kind of ambiguity in MJB’s post there, Mark? I don’t see any.[/quote]
You’re right. There is an obvious contradiction there. Sorry.

Also, I remember back around last December, someone posted in this thread that they let Mark look at himself in the mirror and his eyes became wet (with tears). So maybe Mark also feels embarrassed about the way that his head looks.

I hope that he can have an artificial scull fitted soon so that his head would look normal again. But that would be plastic surgery, so the NHI probably wouldn’t pay for it.

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I’m not sure where you’re going with this layman’s speculation, but I will point out that it is cosmetic surgery that the NHI doesn’t pay for. Reconstructive surgery is another matter entirely.

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Sandman is right, actually having the reconstructive surgery will not only be paid for, it will put him in back into the NHI system for another full year. As it is, Marks last stint under the broad but quirky NHI blanket expires in less than 5 weeks.

There has been much speculation regarding what Mark can and cannot do, including some real over-t he-top stuff from the Taipeitimes, who are suggesting that Mark is buzzing around Linkou in an electric wheelchair. I don’t know where they get this shit…but ok.

I think at this juncture it would be very difficult to quantify what the actual damage is, especially based on a simple image of what obviously has been surgically removed. I will say that in my opinion Mark would not be capable of fully comprehending complex sentence structures at present. He does follow simple commands during physical therapy from his immediate family, caregiver and on occasion, his friends. He is improving. Having a caregiver that pushes him daily in his native tongue has really helped IMHO.

So, he was a go for surgery up until his last bout of lung infection/fever, which is the main reason the surgery hasn’t taken place yet. When and if the docs think he is strong enough for the surgery, it will take place. At present, his immune system is simply too weak to take the risk.

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[quote=“Mark Nagel”][quote=“sandman”][quote=“Mark Nagel”]I don’t think pictures of Mark Selikoff are offensive at all, so I don’t think they should be deleted unless Mark’s sister, mother, or wife (or the moderator) thinks they are offensive.
[/quote]

Are you seeing some kind of ambiguity in MJB’s post there, Mark? I don’t see any.[/quote]
You’re right. There is an obvious contradiction there. Sorry.[/quote]

Mark’s family, especially his wife, does not want any photo that has close look on Mark’s left side of the head on public! She thinks it might be horrifying for people to see that.

Mark will be in GuanShan Chung Gang Rehab Center 3A50C for about 5 weeks from now. Once the fever is gone and his condition is stable, the family might consider putting the skull back.

Mark’s mother will be here till 11/6 and his father is coming next Wednesday 10/17 for about 8 days, if you would like to pay them a visit.

55

For what it’s worth, perhaps reading some poetry or other inspirational literature to Mark would be beneficial. Perhaps someone is already doing this. Just a thought.

56

How is Mark doing? Last week - as a result of Mark’s accident - I finally got around to signing up for some life and health insurance. I want to encourage everyone who has no additional coverage (other than the National Health Insurance) to insure themselves so that they do not become a burden to their loved ones.

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Such a worthy resurrection, and on so many fronts!

Pity he’s/was a sheep shagger.

HG

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Interesting coincidence…Mark just got out of surgery, and this time it’s not for any medical dilemma. He was finally deemed healthy enough to go ahead with the skull replacement surgery, which took place today. It will be very interesting/and uplifting to see Mark with a normal looking head again. There are those in the hospital that believe improvement is possible now that the surgery is complete. Only time will tell.

59

That’s good to hear.

Hang in there, big guy!

60

Always nice to hear some good news.