Oliver Sacks

It was an ordinary day, July 9, 1933. Almost ordinary; not quite. For that was the day a babe was born. And that babe became a boy. And the boy became a man. And the man became the poet laureate of medicine. In this essay, the story of the babe who became a boy who became a man who became the poet laureate of medicine will be told. It will be told in the span of two pages, and in as much detail as was available for the public. This is the story of Oliver Sacks. Oliver Sacks was born 9th July, 1933, to parents who were both doctors. This pushed him more towards the medicinal field. Oliver was born in London, England. At a young age, when World War II bombings were the worst, Oliver was enrolled into a boarding school for his safety, located in Braefield, England. Conditions at the school were terrible. Students were abused, packages from parents were stolen, and the food served seemed as it was meant to be fed to the cattle. There were very few visits to London in between the schooling, and each visit was filled with a plethora of bombing. After finishing his education at the boarding school, Sacks attended Oxford University. It was there that he received his medical degree. He graduated from the University in 1954, and received other medical degrees between 1954 and 1958. In 1960, Sacks moved to the United States, where he continued his medical training as an intern at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, then residency in neurology at the University of California in Los Angeles. In 1965, Dr Oliver Sacks moved to New York. He worked at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University as a neurochemistry and neuropathology researcher, before moving to work at Beth Abraham Hospital, practising neurology. He remained working there for forty years, yet also worked as a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He began as an instructor from 1966 to 1975, moved up to assistant professor for three years, associate professor until 1985, and finally as a clinical professor of neurology. Oliver Sacks first book was Migraine. It was first written as notes collected from different cases Sacks had worked with, then later edited into short stories telling of different patients. It was published in 1970. Whilst working at the Bath Abraham Hospital, he came across a group of patients who had lost all ability to move for themselves. They were diagnosed with Encephalitis Lethargica,

also known as sleepy sickness. The group had the disease since its epidemic from 1916 to the late 1920s. Sacks prescribed them L-Dopa, a new drug at the time that was still experimental. It managed to bring all the patients back to their normal states. Oliver Sacks after wrote a book about his experiences with these patients, titled Awakenings. The book was published in 1973. It later inspired a play and a movie to be made. Sacks next book was not another story of his patients and his role as his doctor, but of him being the patient. He had injured his leg in a mountain climbing accident, and had to have surgery for it to be repaired. But upon waking after surgery, Sacks found he could not move his leg. It seemed to not be a part of his body anymore. This condition is called phantom limb syndrome. His book, A Leg To Stand On, published in 1984, told of the situation Oliver Sacks had found himself in, and how he recovered from it. Dr Sacks went on to work on many different cases. These included patients with Tourettes, retardation, Parkinsons, epilepsy, musical hallucinations, schizophrenia, autism, phantom limb syndrome, Alzheimers disease, and many other conditions. He wrote of these cases in his next novel, titled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. It was published the year of 1985, and is one of his most famous books. It revolved mostly around patients with perception issues, but also expanded on my other situations. An opera was based off of the title story. Another story was told in the words of Dr Oliver Sacks. It was called Seeing Voices: A Journey Into The World Of The Deaf, released to the public in 1989. It described the culture of the deaf. Sacks eventually became interested in autism. This inspired another book to be written, An Anthropologist On Mars, published in 1995. It was quite similar to the book written before it, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. Sacks went on to explore other unfamiliar issues with perception and mental functioning. Two years after the release of his last book, another one was published. It was titled The Island Of The Colorblind; And Cycad Island. It told the story of an island in the Pacific Ocean where a form of colourblindness was common. Sacks autobiography was published in 2001, titled Uncle Tungsten: Memories Of a Chemical Boyhood. He has released another three books since then, Oaxaca Journal in 2002, Musicophilia: Tales Of Music And The Brain in 2007, and The Minds Eye in 2010. Dr Oliver Sacks is a famous neurologist and writer. He has written eleven books so far, and is sure to write more. He was a babe that turned into a boy that turned into a man that turned into the poet laureate of medicine. He has studied many different conditions, some common and others completely unique. To this day, Sacks is still working as a neurologist. This is his story. But it is only the story so far.

Sources:

http://www.answers.com/topic/oliver-sacks http://www.oliversacks.com/about-the-author/biography/