How I Became a Human Being

In September 1955, six-year-old Mark O'Brien moved his arms and legs for the last time. He came out of a 30-day coma to find himself in an iron lung, the machine in which he would live for much of the rest of his life. This volume is O'Brien's account of his struggles to lead an independent life despite a lifelong disability. He describes growing up without the use of his limbs, his adolescence struggling with physical rehabilitation and suffering the bureaucracy of hospitals and institutions, and his adult life as an independent student and writer. Despite his weak physical state, O'Brien earned a graduate degree, explored his sexuality, fell in love, published poetry and worked as a journalist.