Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon, had been living a “predictably normal” life by his accounts when one day he woke up with his brain on fire, writhing in pain as his meningitis devoured—quite literally—his brain.
He was rushed to the hospital, where he fell into a week-long coma. His disease had a 53 percent mortality rate (pdf), and cases like his nearly always result in lasting neurological impairment. At the beginning of the week, doctors told his family he had a 10 percent chance of survival. By the end of the week, that projection fell to two percent, and if he recovered they foresaw that he would spend the remainder of his life in a vegetative state….