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After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

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131–137 of 137 posts

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#131

I would strongly question the idea that he has "no structural abnormality". It would be very interesting to see exactly what type of imaging they performed on him. Bear in mind, an abnormality in the hippocampus or other memory related structures could be sub-mm in size and result in a significant impairment. If, for example, he did not have an MRI with diffusion weighted imaging with a sufficiently high B value (gra…

Not to deny what you're saying, because I believe a key tenet of biology is that structure follows function, but how would the structural abnormality be caused by the operation?

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#132
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sort of a weak version of a P-zombie. Presumably the lack of conscious awareness would still be observable using a sufficiently detailed brain scan if not anything else, as opposed to a "real" P-zombie where the presence of consciousness is assumed to be completely epiphenomenal.

It's not that we're not aware, it's essentially that we may only be aware - aware of our thoughts once our subconscious thinks them, aware of our actions and their consequences once they're made. The trick, seemingly is manipulating the focus of awareness to convince the subconscious decision-making apparatus to make different decisions, even though all we really have control of is our awareness.

Yes, this is the "weak" position. The original definition of a P-zombie is an entity that really does have no qualia, that is, subjective experience or "consciousness", but behaves exactly like it did, down to the neuronal level. It is a thought experiment and can be used as a reductio ad absurdum to argue that eg. uploads still have qualia.

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#133

Is it necessarily the anaesthesia or a hemorrhage? Have they considered removing the root canal? Sometimes removing the materials from a root canal has improved a patient's health significantly. Certainly one could understand why the dental industry would avoid the meme "root canal = bad!", but in this case the patient has little to lose, his future being lost already.

Claims that dental fillings are toxic, and that removing them will provide various health benefits, are a somewhat common medical scam. There is absolutely no evidence supporting these claims.

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mercury.ht...

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pointing out the deaths caused by improper care are one of the few tools we have to correct the egregious errors that go uncorrected all the time in health care. For instance a family friend was told she had uterine cancer and was all set to start her doctor's protocol. But at the last minute wanted a second opinion from MD Anderson, the best cancer hospital in the world. After their team looked at her doctor…

What consequence should he face? Doctors are still people and can absolutely make stupid mistakes just like the rest of us. Any serious diagnosis should always lead to getting a second (or even third!) opinion.

That's a tough question. But right now it is near impossible for them to face any consequences. Even writing about them publicly can result in libel lawsuits. But MD Anderson's team (they don't assign a single doctor to a case) saw the cancer was on a different organ from the same tests that the original doctor used, obviously that doctor made a mistake that could have resulted in my friends death. It would be fair if these mistakes added up like points on your drivers license (adjusted for the difficulty of your medical field). Of course just reforming state medical boards to no longer put protecting doctors as their primary mission, but protecting patients first would be a step in the right direction.

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#135

Is it necessarily the anaesthesia or a hemorrhage? Have they considered removing the root canal? Sometimes removing the materials from a root canal has improved a patient's health significantly. Certainly one could understand why the dental industry would avoid the meme "root canal = bad!", but in this case the patient has little to lose, his future being lost already.

Claims that dental fillings are toxic, and that removing them will provide various health benefits, are a somewhat common medical scam. There is absolutely no evidence supporting these claims. http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mercury.ht...

We're talking about _root_ _canals_, not dental fillings! Other than the anaesthetic, the materials used in root canals are are entirely different from those used in a dental filling.

Furthermore, root canals require different training and are (usually) done by endodontists. Dentists usually handle the more mundane and more tested procedure of dental fillings.

My point is, root canals are much more invasive and have their own problems(not associated with dental fillings).

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#136
I would suggest everyone to get a second opinion just to be safe. I have used a second opinion service https://secondopinions.com a few times and will continue to do so. For the time and price its well worth it. Very professional and saved me a bunch of money.They also gave me a coupon code to share “sy15" to take 15% off your entire order which should still work. I recommend getting a second opinion because it can potentially save your life

Re: After simple dental surgery, William lost his ability to form new memories

#137
I would suggest everyone to get a second opinion just to be safe. I have used a second opinion service https://secondopinions.com a few times and will continue to do so. For the time and price its well worth it. Very professional and saved me a bunch of money.They also gave me a coupon code to share “sy15" to take 15% off your entire order which should still work. I recommend getting a second opinion because it can potentially save your life
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