Running Farther With a Partial Lobectomy

Diane Van Deren has won several of the world most grueling ultra-marathons. At 57 she is still considered one of the world top endurance runners. In 2009, she became the first women to complete and win the 430 mile Yukon Arctic Ultra. Diane had previously been a professional tennis player, that is until she began having epileptic seizures. Her success as an ultra-marathoner, for better or worse, has been attributed to a procedure she had in 1997.

After enduring 17 years of epileptic seizures, having up to four per week, Diane and her doctors decided to remove a portion of her brain. In 1997 Diane underwent a partial right temporal lobectomy, removing the portion of her brain that was causing the seizures. The procedure ended her epilepsy. She has not had a seizure since, but the operation has left some residual complications.

Diane now has a blind spot in the upper left part of her vision and cannot track time very well. Her husband says she is always running late and has no sense of direction. Her memory has also been impaired. She can’t remember the ages of her three children or remember where she went on her honeymoon. Diane’s doctors say that her surgery may have helped her distance running. The portion of her brain that was removed is involved in processing emotion, specifically the emotional reaction to pain. They also hypothesize that her spatial unawareness leads to loss of time, increasing her ability to run long distances without being cognizant of it.

The question becomes: is it safe? Our bodies have control mechanisms to sense pain in order to prevent serious injury. Furthermore, did her procedure give an unfair advantage over her fully intact brained peers? If lance Armstrong had a partial right temporal lobectomy instead of using the complicated blood doping scheme, would he have been stripped of his medals?

References

Havey, M. L. (2014, December 12). Running From the Seizures. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/running-from-the-seizures/383123/