Patient H69

April 10, 2017
Potter, a former U.K. television producer, recounts her frightening and sudden loss of vision in 2012—and the slow return to sight, albeit altered—after an episode of neuromyelitis optica, or optic neuritis. In meticulous detail, Potter chronicles the journey from a “black hole” to the point a year later when she realized “that life just normal again.” While keeping track of every slow step to regaining sight—and the loss of sensation in her hands and feet—she approached her sight loss like she used to do her television job, “except this time it was to be the biggest production of my life,” a replication of “my journey in a far more immersive and large-scale way.” Potter began writing a blog and created meditation tools that she used based on “the visualized mental sanctuary that I now call the beach.” She also constructed art installations and explored the science of the “blind sight” she experienced when she first began to “feel” colors. Potter’s work records an indomitable spirit that righted a world that had turned upside down. “How an illness changes you is actually your choice,” Potter writes. “The way I see it is that if those choices are not obvious, then you just have to carve them out for yourself.”

June 1, 2017
In 2012, Potter was struck by an incredibly rare neurological illness that numbed her sense of touch and obliterated her sense of sight. Within 72 hours after her symptoms started, she was completely blind. Dubbing herself Patient H69, she meticulously tracks her mystery illness. Potter poignantly describes the gradual dimming of her sight and the loss of feeling in her extremities. She expertly conveys her emotions with beautiful prose that ignites empathy but also invigorates readers. Potter's sheer determination is contagious. As her sight and mobility begin to return, Potter starts dissecting her illness and learning about the human brain. With the help of a team of neuroscientists, her incessant research took her on an unforeseen journey that led to a unique collaboration of science and art. Patient H69 is more than a memoir. It is a journey toward understanding the brain told through the harrowing story of an intensely curious woman with the foresight to track her progress, and the compassion to use her experience to help others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2017
A stunning account of the onset of a form of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, a rare autoimmune disorder that can cause sudden blindness and paralysis.Broadcast producer Potter developed her illness after a bout of flu that left her feeling strange. The weirdness turned terrifying as her visual world shrank to a brown haze and then total blackness while her extremities developed a spreading numbness and her feet turned ice-cold. In the span of a couple days, she was hospitalized (H69 is the beginning of her insurance ID) and subject to multiple tests, but the doctors could find nothing wrong with her eyes. The problem was damage to the optic nerve and the spinal cord by her immune system. Treatment included injections of steroids and cleansing her blood of the destructive antibodies. Doctors assured her that she would recover, albeit slowly. Here, Potter's personality as a go-getter, a fighter, a creative producer, and a meditator comes into play, as she delivers well-written daily recordings of her fears and frustrations caused by her total dependence on others. As promised, however, there was progress, and that story is fascinating. First, Potter began to see vertical lines and edges but only in black and white and in two dimensions; colors were the last to appear, with, in her case, some odd crossing over with the sense of touch. Though she left the hospital after two weeks, it was another year before she was back to reasonable mobility--and she still suffered from somewhat hazy vision. Potter used this time to ask scientists to explain vision but also to develop an idea for a science fair exhibit in which participants are wired to record their brain waves and have them translated into color patterns and musical sounds. Patient narratives are a growing genre, and not all end happily. Potter's has that positive aspect as well as illustrating one woman's way of coping with a disease that touches on universal fears: blindness and paralysis.

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Starred review from May 15, 2017

Potter thought she was recovering from a simple flulike virus when, over a period of 72 hours, she lost her vision completely as well as her sense of touch (making it difficult to walk). Her world came crashing to a halt; she was no longer the competent television producer she had been the week before. Eventually diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder, an autoimmune neurological condition affecting the optic nerve, spinal cord, and brain, Potter had to relearn how to see, feel, and walk. Her intense desire to recover and her insatiable curiosity to understand what was happening to her propelled her to keep meticulous records of her months-long journey to recovery. Drawing on journal entries and audio recordings, Potter divides the book into two parts. The first is an enthralling personal chronicle of her illness, and the second is a more clinical yet immensely readable retelling of her discoveries as she talked with neurologists and psychologists in an attempt to comprehend the science behind her health issues. VERDICT A compelling firsthand medical account--it's as if an Oliver Sachs patient were to tell her own story--sure to appeal to memoir fans as well as those interested in the science of the brain.--Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.