brain on fire susannah cahalan sparknotes

Souhel Najjar discovered, after a brain biopsy, that Cahalan had anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. Eventually Cahalan is admitted to the epilepsy unit at NYU Medical Center, where she becomes catatonic.Ī specialist was asked to review Cahalan’s case. Skeptical of the doctor’s initial diagnosis (alcohol withdrawal), Cahalan’s mother pleads with the doctor for hospitalization. 9).Ĭahalan’s health continues to deteriorate as her symptoms mount – migraines, tingling and eventual numbness in her left hand, insomnia, racing thoughts, anxiety, fatigue, nightmares, nausea, hallucinations, and episodes of mania and psychosis – eventually leading Cahalan to the doctor. It is unknown how she acquired her illness, but the author notes that the episodes that followed nearly sent her to an asylum (p. After returning home, Cahalan dismisses her ailments as the flu, and speculates on where she might have contracted the bug, attributing it to a sneeze on the subway.

The memoir opens with the author convinced of a bed bug infestation, and preoccupied by this thought, Cahalan uncharacteristically neglects her work as a reporter at the New York Post. The book offers numerous themes on which student affairs professionals can pull perseverance, grit, persistence, determination, patience, positive thinking, and hard work – all important traits to instill in students. Susannah Cahalan’s breathtaking and terrifying memoir, Brain on Fire, chronicles the weeks preceding her illness, her month long hospitalization of which she has no memory, and recovery.

Brain on fire susannah cahalan sparknotes