Medical Brain

Robert McCrum was 42 when he suffered a massive stroke which left one side of his body paralysed, his speech drastically impaired and his sense of himself radically altered. My Year Off traces McCrum's gruelling recovery as he regains sensation and begins to come to terms, with the help of his family, with what can and cannot be recovered after a grave injury. It is a moving remonstrance against human frailty and a vital and insightful exploration of hope, despair, determination and, ultimately, love.

While everyone knows of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the viral craze that swept the nation in summer 2014, too few know the truly inspirational story behind it. Pete Frates was a man at war with his own body, a man whose love for others was unshakable. He was a man who refused to fight alone and, in so doing, mobilized a global army to combat one of the most devastating diseases on earth: ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Pro football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly and his wife, Jill, were catapulted from a seemingly fairy-tale life of celebrity into a world of private struggle and medical uncertainty. What the public didn’t know, however, was that behind the scenes lurked more than a family’s pain at the dire prognosis of their only son. Hunter’s illness exposed the troubled depths of a marriage that had long been shadowed by uncertainties of its own.

When Tom DeBaggio turned 57 in 1999, he thought he was embarking on the golden years of retirement -- time to spend with his family, his friends, and the herb garden he spent decades cultivating. One winter day, he told his doctor during a routine exam that he had been stumbling into forgetfulness. After it subsequent battery of tests, DeBaggio joined the legion of 12 million others afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

“Discharged from a hospital just means you’re not dead.” These words of Ralph B. Lilly, M.D., describe his early struggle to recover from a traumatic brain injury. Lilly was a forty-four-year-old practicing neurologist sitting on his motorcycle at a red light when a drunk driver rear-ended him in 1980. In the ICU, after regaining consciousness and being told what happened, he asked, “What’s a hospital? What’s a motorcycle?” This tragic experience transformed his life and his approach to his neurology practice: doctors treat those with brain injury; but loved ones heal them.

Your work life is boring, and your marriage has grown stale. The diets you’ve tried for the last 10 years have gotten you nowhere, and you feel tired, worn out, and unproductive. It’s time for a change, but not one prescribed by another self-help podcast or Instagram influencer. You need a real solution—one that will help you rediscover the real you.

I have had Parkinson’s disease (PD) for 22 years. I am told I have a mild case, but it is still my PD, and I live with it 24/7. It would be a gross understatement to say my life was changed forever. Interestingly, many of these changes have made me a more compassionate, empathetic, and caring person. In part, this book was motivated by the following premise: Many of us will experience a life-changing event that will cause us to pause and reassess where we are, what we do, and why we do it. For some, it might be the death of a loved one or a personal tragedy.

When 27-year-old Kristen Stewart was rushed to the ER with horrific dizziness and nausea, she never imagined how her young life was about to change. In My Brainstorm, Stewart shares the harrowing, heartwarming, and often hilarious story of her emergency brain surgery, rehab, egg freezing, radiation, and chemo. You’ll laugh and learn with Kristen as she navigates overcoming brain cancer.

Allison shares her revealing story in The Angel Inside: A Young Woman's Healing Journey Through Coma and Brain Injury. Her book is a multi-sensory description of what it was like to be in a coma from the inside looking out, on a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual level, how she was able to heal, her evolving relationship with God, as well as how we can be of better assistance to people in need of care.

The summer before she was set to head out of state to pursue her MFA, 26-year-old Cole Cohen submitted herself to a battery of tests. For as long as she could remember, she'd struggled with a series of learning disabilities that made it nearly impossible to judge time and space - standing at a crosswalk, she couldn't tell you if an oncoming car would arrive in 10 seconds or 30; if you asked her to let you know when 10 minutes had passed, she might notify you in a minute or an hour.

Angela Leigh Tucker had not expected death that day. Newlywed, thirty years old and a successful public relations professional, she and her husband were driving home when a semi-truck hurtled over the center-lane divider and crushed their SUV. Her husband died on impact. She was left hanging onto life by a thin, golden thread. With her brain severely injured and her neck, shoulder, and ribs broken, she had instantly lost everything but her will to live.

An amazing, true story of how author E. Michal Gayer, through the application of Biblical healing principles, was healed from an aggressive, incurable, life-threatening brain tumor. This account takes Biblical understanding beyond the surface, to the deep, intimate, personal level where we live. He discusses many nuances to Biblical healing that are rarely addressed, and spiritual steps that can be taken to appropriate healing. The audiobook answers many of the questions that surround Biblical healing, and is a much sought-after assist to people struggling to receive healing from God.