This taut, compelling drama centers on a radical brain operation performed on two little girls with a horrible and disfiguring disease, dystonia musculorum deformans.

Over the past two decades at the Institute of Neuroscience at St. Barnabas Hospital, Dr. I. S. Cooper and his colleagues have examined and treated more than 30,000 patients with chronic neurologic disease. In this book, Dr. Copper speaks directly to both patient and family as though they were with him in his consulting room. He offers counsel about selecting a physician and establishing a relationship based on mutual trust and respect. He deals with the problems of anxiety and loneliness, and helps the patient plan as fruitful and independent a life as possible. Physical therapy and forms of self-help—many of which can be practiced in the home—are dealt with.

This taut, compelling drama centers on a radical brain operation performed on two little girls with a horrible and disfiguring disease, dystonia musculorum deformans.

Over the past two decades at the Institute of Neuroscience at St. Barnabas Hospital, Dr. I. S. Cooper and his colleagues have examined and treated more than 30,000 patients with chronic neurologic disease. In this book, Dr. Copper speaks directly to both patient and family as though they were with him in his consulting room. He offers counsel about selecting a physician and establishing a relationship based on mutual trust and respect. He deals with the problems of anxiety and loneliness, and helps the patient plan as fruitful and independent a life as possible. Physical therapy and forms of self-help—many of which can be practiced in the home—are dealt with.