Lifelines
Breaking out of locked-in syndrome
Peter Couche
PB 160 PP 210 x 135 ILLUS ISBN 9781862547674
$24.95 Wakefield Press
While on a business trip to Singapore in 1992,
41-year-old Peter Couche, a London-based stockbroker and father
of three, suffered an irreversible brain-stem stroke. Twenty-four
hours later he was paralysed: he could blink in response to questions
but was unable to speak, eat or breathe independently, although
his mind remained alert.
It took more than thirteen years for Peter
to record this inspiring story of his struggle for a normal life,
away from the mind-numbing world of institutions. Lifelines
is a love story and an account of the hope provided by stem-cell
therapy. Above all Peter Couche shows how miracles can happen
if we fight hard enough.