Summary Of Brain On Fire

The book Brain on Fire is a captivating and compelling story about a young woman with a debilitating autoimmune disorder, anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis (Anti-NMDAR encephalitis). The young woman, Susannah Cahalan, experiences many bumps and turns with her disease, and this makes for a very thrilling tale. When I first picked up the book, I assumed it was a memoir or journal from a person (Susannah Cahalan) with a mental illness, and how she dealt with it, along with her time in a mental institution. This book, I that thought was going to be generic, was not the dull book that I assumed I was assigned to read. However, I was happily wrong, and I was barely able to set the book down and not read ahead. The chilling medical mystery,

the writing, and the family story are all what makes this such a wonderful book.
One of the best parts of the book, or so I thought, was how she described her experiences in great detail, to the point where I could put myself in her shoes, see from their perspective, and feel the fear she and her family must have felt.

However, instead of spending their time stressed and afraid, her parents, Tom Cahalan and Rhona Nack, and her boyfriend, Stephen, tried to stay strong by Susannah’s side, as well as tried to stay positive. Throughout the book, Susannah’s father says their motto, “What’s the slope of the line?” to keep Susannah optimistic about her recovery, even when her cognitive ablility is so deteriorated that she doesn’t know what it means. This is also slightly self-assuring for her father and their family, so they can also stay positive and hopeful. If I were her parents, put into this situation, I don’t think that I would have done anything differently. Her parents knew that something was wrong with and admitted her to the hospital, even when doctors told them that she was healthy. However, they knew that they couldn’t do much besides support Susannah, because treatment and diagnosis were out of their hands, so they tried to do all they could and stayed by her side until she was back to

normal.
Several moments in the book stood out to me, including when Susannah had her first seizure, when she was diagnosed, and when she went back to the hospital.

When Suzannah had her first seizure, to me it felt as if her illness had really started there. Her seizure was one of the first large symptoms she had, and that was significant to me. If there was one thing that I felt was the highlight of Brain on Fire, it was when Dr. Najjar diagnosed Susannah with some form of encephalitis. When she drew a clock, all of the numbers were on the right side, and Dr. Najjar knew from that that the right side of Susannah’s brain was inflamed. I thought it was amazing and slightly ironic that he was able to do that with just a pen and paper, whereas many other doctors tried (and failed) to diagnose her with fancy machinery and tests. On the other hand, It was difficult for me to believe that no other doctor had thought to do this beforehand, because it was such a simple test to perform. However, this is still one of my favorite parts of this memoir. The final instance that impacted me was when Susannah returned to the hospital to see the “purple lady”. Quite frankly, it was amazing that she was able to return to the hospital where her brain was on fire, completely sane and almost as healthy as she was

before.
Brain on Fire was a book that made me consider the dangers of misdiagnosis and hidden diseases. They can come with no warning, and can be ruthless, like anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, and many can cause people their lives. As well as this, this book forced me to rethink how doctors diagnose a patient. Before I had read this book (and taken this class), I had (foolishly) assumed that there was either a cure or at least a name for every malady a person may come across. After reading, I realized that sometimes even doctors do not know what disease someone may have contracted, and they don’t always know how to treat or cure a patient. In this book, several incorrect doctors before Dr. Najjar seemed villainized, but, I realized that if I were a health care professional, it would be a tough decision for me to make as well. Sometimes, doctors have to treat the symptoms of a disease as best they can. In Susannah’s book, she was misdiagnosed as manic-depressive, and was placed on Keppra to try to control her mood. In reading Brain on Fire, I discovered and was slightly disillusioned that doctors don’t have an answer for everything. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I reccomend this book to anyone who has an interest in the medical field.