With the blink of his eye

Probably you don't know this man. Jean Dominique Bauby. He was editor at Elle France. One evening he was driving with his sun, they had planned go to the theatre. Suddenly, he suffered a cerebral infarct. His body was totally paralysed, he was in coma during weeks, and then got over it, but the consequences of the infarct were tragic: he would be in a bed forever, deprived of movement and speech. His brain wasn't able to communicate with the rest of his body, so he couldn't move. He suffered an illness called locked-in syndrome, his mind was intact, but his body didn't answer to the orders of his brain, he couldn't speak, eat by himself, walk...nothing. He wrote a book only with the blink of his eye. An asistant said to him all the letters of the alphabet, and he blinked when she said the letter he was thinking about. They "wrote" three hours a day, and they made a chapter each three days.

The book became a best-seller, it was published (the French version) two days before he died. He passed away a day like today, 11 years ago (9-3-1997) at the age of 44. He spent a huge part of his life telling us what was fashion. He was a great example of tenacity, sacrifice and trying to do his best under the worst circumstances I can imagine.

Probablemente no conoc�is a este hombre. Se llama Jean Dominique Bauby. Era editor de la edici�n francesa de la revista Elle. Una tarde como otra cualquiera �l iba conduciendo su coche nuevo, iba acompa�ado por su hijo mayor, con el que iba a ir al teatro. De repente le di� un infarto cerebral. Su cuerpo se qued� totalmente paralizado, y tras semanas en coma, por fin despert�. Lo malo fue c�mo: su destino era estar postrado en una cama durante el resto de sus d�as. No pod�a comer por s� mismo, hablar o caminar, lo �nico que pod�a hacer de forma independiente era escuchar y respirar. Le cosieron uno de sus ojos para evitar infecciones, y el �nico movimiento real que pod�a hacer era parpadear con el otro ojo. La enfermedad que sufr�a se llamaba "s�ndrome de cautiverio", una enfermedad que consiste en que la persona, cuya mente se encuentra en perfecto estado, totalmente l�cida, se encuentra encerrada en su cuerpo, que a la vez est� completamente inm�vil. Lo �nico que pod�a hacer era parpadear con el ojo que le quedaba sano. Una asistente le dictaba el abecedario contin�amente, y �l parpadeaba cada vez que ella dec�a la letra adecuada. As� escribieron su libro. "La escafandra y la mariposa". Cada d�a repet�an este proceso durante tres horas, y cada tres d�as aproximadamente consegu�an crear un cap�tulo. �l muri� un d�a como hoy, hace once a�os (9-3-1997). Ten�a 44 a�os. Gran parte de su vida ha estado unida a la moda. Una mente brillante encerrada en un cuerpo casi inerte, un ejemplo de tenacidad, sacrificio y af�n de superaci�n.

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