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Part 2 The Clock Reflection

Decent Essays

I could not put the book down. From the medical terminology to the NMDAR to the omniscient 3rd person point of view that provided a glimpse of what the people around her were experiencing, Part Two: The Clock fascinated me. Two huge lessons I took away from this section was that no matter how bleak and sad Susannah’s case seemed, her family and friends provided unwavering hope and optimism that is very important to patients like her, and the high level of teamwork that took to diagnose her was phenomenal. There has been a long track record of the mistreatment and misdiagnoses of individuals with mental illnesses and disorders. It wasn’t long ago that major strides were made to improve the quality of treatment for patients like Susannah. Reading …show more content…

Seeing everything from an unattached perspective it is easy to see the determination and drive these doctors had to find a diagnoses and treatment for Susannah. Instead of giving up, more and more doctors joined the team to help piece all of her conflicting symptoms. No one seemed prideful, but they all took ownership and responsibility of the case. Dr. Siegal contacted Dr. Najji who then contacted Dr. Dalmau. Without these three key figures and everyone else who worked on the case, the diagnoses would have not been possible. The correct diagnoses would have been missed and Susannah would have suffered and most likely passed away as she was getting to the point of no return with her disease. It stuns me just how well it came together in the end for the team, because they kept getting hints at what the problem was, but they weren’t getting any positive results or evidence to confidently diagnose her. Figuring out that the problem was an autoimmune disease that causes NMDA-receptor-seeking antibodies was like finding a needle in a haystack. According to Susannah, she would have been only the 217th person to be diagnosed in the world after the year 2007. Unbelievable. That’s a ridiculously rare disease. I am astonished that they were able to diagnose her. I cannot wait to read on and see how her treatment and rehabilitation

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