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Author Cahalan, Susannah, author.

Title Brain on fire : my month of madness / Susannah Cahalan.

Publication Info. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2013.
©2012

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Berlin-Peck Memorial Library - Biographies  92 BIOGRAPHY CAHALAN    Check Shelf
 Burlington Public Library - Adult Department  606.832 CAHALAN    Check Shelf
Edition First Simon & Schuster trade paperback edition.
Description xiv, 266 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Note "With a new afterword"--Cover.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-261).
Contents Part 1. Crazy -- Bedbug blues -- The girl in the black lace bra -- Carota -- The wrestler -- Cold roses -- America's most wanted -- On the road again -- Out-of-body experience -- A touch of madness -- Mixed episodes -- Keppra -- The ruse -- Buddha -- Search and seizure -- Part 2. The clock -- The Capgras delusion -- Postictal fury -- Multiple personality disorder -- Breaking news -- Big man -- The slope of the line -- Death with interruptions -- A beautiful mess -- Dr. Najjar -- IVIG -- Blue devil fit -- The clock -- Brain biopsy -- Shadowboxer -- Dalmau's disease -- Rhubarb -- The big reveal -- 90 percent -- Homecoming -- California dreamin' -- Part 3. In search of lost time -- The videotape -- Stuffed animals -- Wild at heart -- Friends -- Within normal limits -- Umbrella -- Chronology -- Infinite jest -- NDMA -- Partial return -- The five W's -- Grand rounds -- The exorcist -- Survivor's guilt -- Hometown boy makes good -- Ecstatic -- Flight risk? -- Madame X -- The purple lady.
Summary One day in 2009, twenty-four-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. Only weeks earlier, Susannah had been on the threshold of a new, adult life, a healthy, ambitious college grad a few months into her first serious relationship and a promising career as a cub reporter at a major New York newspaper. Who was the stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her mind? In this narrative, Susannah tells the astonishing true story of her inexplicable descent into madness and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn't happen. A team of doctors would spend a month, and more than a million dollars, trying desperately to pin down a medical explanation for what had gone wrong. Meanwhile, as the days passed and her family, boyfriend, and friends helplessly stood watch by her bed, she began to move inexorably through psychosis into catatonia and, ultimately, toward death. Yet even as this period nearly tore her family apart, it offered an extraordinary testament to their faith in Susannah and their refusal to let her go. Then, neurologist Souhel Najjar joined her team and, with the help of a lucky, ingenious test, saved her life. He recognized the symptoms of a newly discovered autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the brain, a disease now thought to be tied to both schizophrenia and autism, and perhaps the root of "demonic possessions" throughout history. This story is the powerful account of one woman's struggle to recapture her identity and to rediscover herself among the fragments left behind. Using all her considerable journalistic skills, and building from hospital records and surveillance video, interviews with family and friends, and excerpts from the deeply moving journal her father kept during her illness, Susannah pieces together the story of her "lost month" to write an unforgettable memoir about memory and identity, faith and love.
Subject Cahalan, Susannah -- Health.
Cahalan, Susannah -- Mental health.
Cahalan, Susannah.
Cahalan, Susannah. (OCoLC)fst01912263
Encephalitis -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Encephalitis -- Patients -- Psychological aspects -- Biography.
Autoimmune diseases -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Autoimmune diseases -- Patients -- Psychological aspects -- Biography.
Frontal lobes -- Diseases -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Limbic system -- Diseases -- Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Diagnostic errors -- United States -- Case studies.
Patients -- United States -- Biography.
Limbic system -- Diseases -- Patients -- Biography.
Brain -- Diseases -- Patients -- Biography.
Autoimmune diseases -- Patients -- Biography.
Encephalitis -- Patients -- Biography.
Diagnostic errors. (OCoLC)fst00892353
Encephalitis -- Patients. (OCoLC)fst00909500
Health. (OCoLC)fst00952743
Mental health. (OCoLC)fst01016339
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis.
Encephalitis.
Genre/Form Autobiographies.
Autobiographies. (OCoLC)fst01919894
Biography. (OCoLC)fst01423686
Case studies. (OCoLC)fst01423765
Standard No. 9781451621389 51600
ISBN 1451621388
9781451621389 (paperback)
9780606356695 (Turtleback)
060635669X (Turtleback)
9781451621372
9781451621396 (ebk)
9781476754383
1476754381
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