Mental Health

The Teenager Who Accidentally Performed Brain Surgery on Himself With a Gun. In 1983, a 19-year-old Canadian student known in medical journals only as "George" was suffering from a devastating case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. His condition was so debilitating that he was paralyzed by compulsions, forcing him to wash his hands hundreds of times a day, drop out of school, and completely isolate himself. Desperate and believing his mind was entirely broken beyond repair, George decided to take his own life. He managed to get his hands on a .22-caliber rifle, pointed the barrel into his own mouth, and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore directly through the left frontal lobe of his brain, but miraculously missed every major blood vessel and vital life-sustaining area. Paramedics rushed his unconscious body to the hospital, where trauma surgeons successfully removed the bullet fragments and saved his life. When George finally woke up, his doctors were stunned. Not only had he survived without any permanent physical brain damage or loss of cognitive function, but the crippling mental illness that had ruined his life was completely gone. By sheer astronomical luck, George had accidentally performed a flawless, incredibly precise prefrontal lobotomy on himself. The bullet had perfectly severed the exact neural pathways responsible for his compulsive behavior, accidentally curing the very illness that drove him to pull the trigger.