Oliver Sacks' book, Awakenings...
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Oliver Sacks' book, Awakenings, tells the stories of many patients who had been struck with encephalitis in the early part of this century. The disease left the patients in a state where they seemed to be "asleep," frozen in place, and no one could tell if they were aware of the world around them or not. Since communication with these patients was difficult and erratic, most of the doctors and nurses caring for them chose to believe that they were totally unaware.
After treatment with L-DOPA, however, the encephalitic patients began to wake up, and to talk and walk around. They began to tell their stories, of how they had been only marginally aware of the world around them. They talked of a sense of unreality, a dream-like state, of a distance or screen between themselves and the things and people around them. Some talked of struggling to move, to make sense of what they saw. Some truly seemed to have been "asleep" for 20 or 30 years, unaware that time was passing, and feeling shocked to see how old they had become. Some mourned the lost years. But all rejoiced to be "awake" at last, to be able to participate in life, and rushed to do so, to make up for lost time.
The saddest part of all the book is Dr. Sack's simple statement in his foreword, that to his knowledge there is nowhere another group of patients who have been maintained on the high level of L-DOPA that he has administered, for the length of time he has maintained his patients. Most of the sufferers of "sleeping sickness" are still asleep, with no one to wake them.
After treatment with L-DOPA, however, the encephalitic patients began to wake up, and to talk and walk around. They began to tell their stories, of how they had been only marginally aware of the world around them. They talked of a sense of unreality, a dream-like state, of a distance or screen between themselves and the things and people around them. Some talked of struggling to move, to make sense of what they saw. Some truly seemed to have been "asleep" for 20 or 30 years, unaware that time was passing, and feeling shocked to see how old they had become. Some mourned the lost years. But all rejoiced to be "awake" at last, to be able to participate in life, and rushed to do so, to make up for lost time.
The saddest part of all the book is Dr. Sack's simple statement in his foreword, that to his knowledge there is nowhere another group of patients who have been maintained on the high level of L-DOPA that he has administered, for the length of time he has maintained his patients. Most of the sufferers of "sleeping sickness" are still asleep, with no one to wake them.
