num_pages: 139
description: ‘Locked-in syndrome: paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.’In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French ‘Elle’ and the father of two young children, suffered a massive stroke and found himself paralysed and speechless, but entirely conscious, trapped by what doctors call ‘locked-in syndrome’. Using his only functioning muscle – his left eyelid – he began dictating this remarkable story, painstakingly spelling it out letter by letter.His book offers a haunting, harrowing look inside the cruel prison of locked-in syndrome, but it is also a triumph of the human spirit.
language: English
title: The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
titlecomplete: The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
characters: Jean-Dominique Bauby
genres: Medicine, Biography, France, Memoir, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Classics, Biography Memoir, Medical, Disability
ratings_count: 70860
places: France, Berck-sur-Mer
publisher: Fourth Estate