Dr Oliver Sacks - a life well lived

Posted on 1 September 2015

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Oliver Sacks died on Sunday 31st August 2015. Oliver Sacks was a Neurologist, a prolific writer and one of Tourettes Action's patrons.

Tourettes Action was very sad to hear of the recent death of Professor Sacks. We had been delighted that he agreed to be a patron of the charity some years ago, joining his friends Sir Jonathan Miller (who he was at school with) and Daniel Katz, MBE.

To the public he was probably the best known clinical neurologist of his generation. He wrote many books and articles and became known as the "poet laureate of medicine". He made his own literary style telling the stories of individual patients based on a deep human connection with them formed with a profound and creative curiosity into the function and malfunctions of the brain.

He was born in North London and went to medical school at Oxford University and the former Middlesex Hospital in London. Most of his later career was spent in New York. He started writing books quite early. The first one was on migraine. The second one, amongst his most celebrated, was "Awakenings" about a group of post-encephalitic patients who responded for a short time to treatments for Parkinson's disease which in the late 1960s had only just become available. He noticed that some of these patients had symptoms similar to Tourette syndrome and he maintained an interest in the condition. This book was later made into an acclaimed film with Robert De Niro and the late Robin Williams who played Dr Sacks. 

His work also inspired plays including one by Harold Pinter and a ballet, part of which was performed at the recent First World Congress on Tourette Syndrome in London where he made an appearence by pre-recorded video. His other very famous title was "the man who mistook his wife for a hat" which includes a well known account of a man with Tourette syndrome called "witty ticcy Ray" with his "ticcy witticisms". This was an important contribution to awareness and research into TS.

Generations of medical students destined to be neurologists have read his books and I still have my copies from over 25 years ago. His last book, "On the move" was an autobiography, a poignant account of his life and explorations in neurology with an impression of the most personal fulfilment and peace in later years. He had various publicly discussed health problems and even wrote a book about the experience of breaking his leg under very unpleasant circumstances.

In the last few months he announced that a previous cancer had returned and this time was not treatable. There was an outpouring of goodwill for him in the press before his death and many obituaries and articles in prestigious publications since he passed away at the end of August in New York. Many people have left comments since then on his webpage (http://www.oliversacks.com/guestbook/) and we invite Tourettes Action members to contribute your thoughts. I think most patients would like him as their doctor. Most neurologists would secretly really like to be Oliver Sacks but few have the ability to understand patients' neurological problems and communicate with an audience in the way he did. 

Dr Jeremy Stern - Tourettes Action Medical Director

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