Thursday, February 21, 2019

Brain on Fire Free Pdf

ISBN: B009VSFJ6C
Title: Brain on Fire Pdf My Month of Madness

In 2009, Susannah Cahalan woke up in a strange hospital room strapped to a bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. Her medical records - from a month-long hospital stay of which she had no memory - reported psychosis, violence, and dangerous instability. Yet, only weeks earlier she had been a healthy, ambitious twenty-four-year-old, six months into her first serious relationship and a sparkling career as a cub reporter.

Susannah's astonishing memoir chronicles the swift path of her illness and the lucky, last-minute intervention led by one of the few doctors capable of saving her life. Weeks ticked by and Susannah moved inexplicably from violence to catatonia. Over one million dollars worth of blood tests and brain scans revealed nothing. The exhausted doctors were ready to commit her to the psychiatric ward, until the celebrated neurologist, Dr. Souhel Najjar, joined her team. With the use of a simple - yet ingenious - test, he was able to make a lifesaving diagnosis - revealing a newly discovered autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the brain.

With sharp reporting drawn from hospital records, scientific research, and interviews with doctors and family, Brain on Fire is a crackling mystery and an unflinching, gripping personal story that marks the debut of an extraordinary writer.

"Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" should be ... "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" should be required reading for everyone in the health care profession- especially neurologists. This past April, 2017, my 18 year old granddaughter, Alysa, after having had seizures, spent 2 weeks in the hospital; MRI's, CT-scans, EEGs and blood work came back normal. Slowly, she became unable to read, to eat, to speak. Slowly, she "descended into madness", becoming violent and hallucinating. In the very beginning of her illness, my daughter-in-law, Gretchen, through research, texted me to have the doctors consider "anti-NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis". At the same time, my sister-in-law, Downey, wrote to tell me of this book. Nope. None of the doctors at the first hospital had a clue about it. On April 14th, Alysa was transported to Chapel Hill, NC Neuroscience Hospital. (I requested the information about the anti NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis be forwarded with her records) One month before Alysa's illness, a young woman was the first to be diagnosed with this disease at Chapel Hill. Working with The Mayo Clinic, doctors at CH acquired an infusion- which almost immediately reversed Alysa's psychotic symptoms! She is still recovering and will need more infusions and therapy. Susannah's book has not only given us insight into what was a horrific nightmare for our family, it has also validated getting a second (third or fourth) opinion when a patient's condition is not improving. Thank you, Susannah! I hope you have made a complete recovery by now.This book lead to my sons diagnoisis I will be forever grateful to Susannah Cahalan for writing this book. It was brought to my attention by a friend and reading it was what lead us to a diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis for my son. This neurological disease has only been identified in the past twelve years and is not widely understood. It is often misdiagnosed as mental illness due to the neuro-psychotic nature of some of the symptoms. The six months proceeding my son's diagnosis were their own kind of hell, and I am not being mellow dramatic when I say that in writing this book, Susannah gave my son his life back. Without it I have no doubt that he would have been institutionalized.If you have any interest in the brain, medicine, or just enjoy a good medical drama please read this book. Not only is it a gripping medical story, but it raises awareness of an obscure and difficult to diagnose neurological disease. We need all the help we can get to raise awareness of Autoimmune Encephalitis and reading this book is a great place to start. Thank you from the mother of an Autoimmune Encephalitis warrior

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