ET, cellphone 911.
Think about sitting at dwelling in your sofa when certainly one of your fingers begins to maneuver of its personal accord — and also you’re powerless to cease it.
That’s what occurred to at least one unidentified 77-year-old girl, whom docs identified with “alien hand syndrome.”
The lady had been watching TV when she seen that her left hand was shifting by itself, as if possessed.
“Her left hand stroked her face and hair with out her will. She received terrified,” the authors of the weird 2014 case research, which was printed within the journal Baylor College Medical Middle Proceedings, wrote.
“Her makes an attempt to regulate the left hand with the appropriate hand had been unsuccessful. She didn’t have any management of the left hand for nearly half-hour because it continued to make purposeful actions.”
“Alien hand syndrome, or Dr. Strangelove syndrome, is an fascinating scenario by which an individual loses management of his or her hand, which begins to behave independently,” they wrote.
“The alien hand would possibly seize onto issues and the particular person might need to make use of the opposite limb to launch the objects from it. At extremes, the alien hand has been reported to even suffocate the affected person.”
The situation is usually attributable to mind trauma, stroke or neurodegenerative ailments similar to Alzheimer’s.
There isn’t a treatment, though the situation might be managed by way of behavioral remedy like conserving the rogue hand occupied with a activity.
Signs can final for days — or years.
Within the case of this aged girl, this stunning phenomenon solely lasted half-hour — the shortest recorded period — though her left arm felt weak and numb afterwards.
Her husband helped her get to the hospital — which is when she seen she was dragging her left leg as she walked.
Docs imagine her alien hand syndrome might have been introduced on by a stroke after she took a break from taking her blood clot medicine in anticipation of spinal surgical procedure.
She step by step regained management of the left aspect of her physique over the subsequent six hours and was despatched dwelling.
The primary identified case of alien hand syndrome was reported by German neurologist Kurt Goldstein in 1908.
AHS is typically known as Dr. Strangelove syndrome, after the traditional Stanley Kubrick movie character whose uncontrollable hand repeatedly makes an attempt to carry out a Nazi salute.
One well-known case concerned a girl who would attempt to button her shirt along with her proper hand, whereas her left hand unbuttoned it.
Her left hand would additionally typically stub out her cigarette with out her permission and slap her within the face.
