Monday, September 7, 2015

RIP Oliver Sacks


I had just finished reading the latest Oliver Sacks book, On The Move, when I learned of his death.   I was sadden to hear this since I consider it a great loss to humanity.  He was 82 so he had a long and very interesting life.  On the move is really an autobiography so it is different from his other writing which mainly focuses on neurology.  He was an excellent writer and his work humanized the cases he talked about in his books.  He was a very humane and kind man.

I  first learned about him from the movie Awakenings.  This was inspired by his book Awakenings.  He was truly a wonderful science writer as well as being a practicing neurologist.  Awakenings is about his use of L-Dopa to try to relieve patents who suffered from the long-term effects of Encephalitis lethargica.  This was called sleeping sickness but is totally different from the protozoan sleeping sickness transmitted by the tsetse fly.  The cause of this disease is still unknown.  There was a breakout of it between 1915 and 1926.  Some of the people suffering from this developed a long-term situation where their bodies were sort of frozen.  Dr. Sacks wondered if this was related somehow to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and gave the patients L-Dopa.  The book and movie describe what happened.  It is an excellent book and made an excellent movie.  Dr. Sacks consulted on the movie.

I have read several of his other books including the well-known The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.  After hearing of his death, I plan to read his other books that I have not yet read.  I also watched the movie again.  Stars Robin Williams and Robert Di Nero.  I consider Oliver a friend I never met in person.

Some interesting links:

RIP Oliver
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1 comment:

  1. Prof. StoreySeptember 7, 2015 at 5:47 PM

    Great writer and physician. Without a doubt, he made many positive and amazing contributions to the world. RIP Oliver Sacks.

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