Tommy McHugh (1949 – 19 September 2012) was a British artist and poet. In his early life, McHugh was a builder and was also involved in youth crimes. When he was 51, he suffered a stroke on both sides of his brain that resulted in two burst blood vessels. He was sent into a coma for a week and acquired savant syndrome.
Injury
McHugh attempted to evacuate his bowels quickly due to a knock on the toilet door. The sudden pressure led to an artery being severed on his
frontal and
temporal lobes, causing him to haemorrhage.
While relearning after his stroke, he began to write poetry to express everything he was experiencing. He also experienced an identity crisis which was most likely the motivation for his artistic outputs.
As an attempt to figure out the cause of his sudden personality change, McHugh wrote to and worked with two neuroscientists:
Alice Flaherty from
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
and Mark Lythgoe from
University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
. A paper has been published about their discoveries.
Death
McHugh died in 2012 from cancer.
Before his death, McHugh said that his strokes "have given
im11 years of a magnificent adventure that nobody could have expected."
References
External links
* http://www.tommymchugh.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:McHugh, Tommy
1949 births
2012 deaths
Deaths from cancer in England