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Preface and Acknowledgements

• Science has occasions just like poetry does.

• The occasions of medicine are injury and sickness.

• During his recovery Sacks was both the patient and the doctor.

• In writing A Leg to Stand On, Sacks was helped by A.R. Luria.

• In the current edition, he used the original Chapter 7 and inserted an Afterword.

Chapter 1

• On a mountain in Norway, Sacks hiked alone, ignoring the warning sign about the bull.

• He was startled by the bull, ran, and fell.

• He severed a tendon in his left leg and "rowed" down the mountain with his hands.

• While nearing death, he remembered life with thankfulness.

• He was rescued at nightfall by two reindeer hunters.

Chapter 2

• At a London hospital, Sacks underwent a seven hour surgery.

• In physical therapy, he was unable to move his left leg.

• He lost his left field of vision, similar to when he suffered...

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