Published on
Updated
Reading 3 min.
in collaboration with
Dr Marc Lévêque (Neurosurgery – Pain)
In a British daily, a widow describes a disturbing event: after years spent with a warm husband, she no longer recognized her husband who had become violent and paranoid. The change was ultimately due to several brain tumors.
From a loving family man to a violent man because of an illness, the tragic story of Dave Kenber can be surprising. It is told by his wife, now widowed, in the DailyMail.
Untreated skin cancer with serious consequences
The story begins in 2013 in South Africa, when Dave Kender detects a mark on his arm. He never wears sunscreen, and generally avoids his doctor. It is skin cancer, but he will only find out later: when the recommended biopsy is cancelled, Dave does not make another appointment and does not worry about it anymore.
But a year later, his behavior is surprising and the man seems to change personality. This is only the beginning of a long fall for the couple and the man’s health.
Paranoid and violent in a few months
A caring and loving husband, father and stepfather, Dave was always there for his family.We were happy, we both had successful careers, our boys were thriving, our lives were social and fun, but then I started to notice changes in his personality.” mentions Michele his widow.
While the man had never shown any signs of jealousy, here he is showing paranoia and saying hurtful things.He also started getting upset very quickly with the children. It got to the point where living with him became a nightmare.” In fact, according to her, Dave went way overboard: he ended up installing spyware on all of Ms. Kenber’s devices and a tracker on her car.
One night, she wakes up to find her husband pointing a pellet gun at her face.
In 2015, at the end of her tether, the mother, now a victim of domestic violence, filed a complaint, got him out of her life and obtained a restraining order.
Three tumors developed that impacted his personality
But in October 2016, Dave Kenber collapsed at work. Taken to hospital, he underwent a CT scan that revealed the unthinkable: he had three advanced brain tumors. Three cancerous masses growing in his left frontal lobe—a part of the brain that plays a key role in social skills, self-control, and behavior.
“The tumors were all from a melanoma related to the original growth on his arm that I had spotted all those years ago.” the widow emphasizes.
Under care, Dave receives intensive radiation therapy, steroids to reduce swelling and surgery to remove some of the tumors. At this point, Michele can’t believe it. “He was completely back to his old self.” She then remained by his side during his last four months, until his inevitable death in January 2017.
Acting directly on the brain can “heal” a personality
The Brain Tumor Charity explains that one in three people could experience personality changes caused by a brain tumor, or its treatment, accompanied by headaches, convulsions, nausea, weakness.
To learn more about the links between the brain, injury and aggression, Doctissimo contacted Dr. Marc Lévêque, neurosurgeon and member of our committee of experts, who sees this example as an interesting illustration.
“This shows that ultimately aggression depends on a psycho-social aspect (people are aggressive when they are suffering, when they are unhappy), but it can also depend on a biological aspect and more particularly on the areas of the brain that take charge of this aggression.”
A dimension that the expert already develops in his book, “Soul Surgery”(JC Lattès, 2017) which reveals how multiple psychiatric illnesses could soon be treated by psychosurgery. An entire chapter is notably devoted to the place of aggression in the brain which has given rise to multiple experiments conducted on violent and dangerous subjects over the last few decades. Whether they target the amygdala, or more precisely the hypothalamus, a small triangular region at the base of our brain which manages our basic impulses: hunger, thirst and sex, but also fear and defense, the various surgeries and interventions proposed have often had more or less conclusive impacts on the personality.
In Dave’s case, change came from within.But from this example, we can deduce that if the brain can generate aggression by itself because of tumors, conversely, surgery can allow aggression to be attacked.”
A conclusion that allows us to think about several possible developments.