![]() ![]() When Bauby’s brain stem was severed from his spinal cord after a massive stroke, he fell into a coma for over a month. Bauby’s circumstances are extreme-and the measures he must take and the methods he must develop to overcome them are similarly intense. Though Bauby’s memoir is not technically an illness memoir or an in-depth look at medicine, the level of resilience, determination, and indeed courage Bauby shows after his stroke is incredible given the poor prognosis he’s given. ![]() Bauby also argues that the more impossible the task, the more impossible feats the person facing that task has the potential to accomplish. A story of humor, grace, and resilience in the face of immense loss and isolation, Bauby’s account of his herculean fight to communicate, connect, examine his own past, and push against his new limits ultimately argues that the human spirit, in times of need, can persevere through extraordinary (and extraordinarily difficult) circumstances. Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has become an inspirational book for many in the twenty-plus years since its initial publication. ![]()
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