One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a "flight risk, " and her medical records--chronicling a monthlong hospital stay of which she had no memory at all--showed hallucinations, violence, and dangerous instability. Cahalan tells the astonishing true story of her inexplicable descent into madness and the...

A poignant and inspirational memoir that chronicles Stephanie Nielson's life before and after the horrific plane crash that changed her path forever.

Through the case history of Phineas Gage, a 19th century Vermonter who had an iron bar driven through his brain and lived, the book examines what is known of brain function.

The hardcover publication of "Sick Girl" garnered tremendous attention, generated impressive sales, and ignited controversy. Both inspiring and provocative, reactions to the book ranged from inflammatory posts on a US News & World Report blog, to hundreds of letters from readers, to a full-page review in "People". Amy's force, candor, and her refusal to be the thankful patient from whom we expect undiluted gratitude for the medical treatments that...

Written by Brooke and Keith Desserich as a remembrance for her younger sister, this is the story of six-year-old Elena Desserich, who died of a rare brain cancer.

Born with a rare genetic mutation called Usher Syndrome type III, Rebecca Alexander has been simultaneously losing both her sight and hearing since she was a child, and was told that she would likely be completely blind and deaf by age 30. Then, at 18, a fall from a window left her athletic body shattered. None of us know what we would do in the face of such devastation. What Rebecca did was rise to every challenge she faced. She refused to lose her...

The author describes her twenty-year friendship with Lucy Grealy, tracing their introduction at a writer's workshop, the integral part their friendship played in their writing careers, and her witness to Grealy's medical deterioration.

"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher. On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour, Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture. Hitchens poignantly describes the torments...

A moving and inspirational memoir by celebrated journalist Susan Spencer-Wendel who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After journalist Spencer-Wendel learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures. This includes taking her fourteen-year-old daughter, Marina, to New York City's Kleinfeld's Bridal to shop for Marina's future...