One young man, after the medical system fails him, suffers alone, bedridden for 10 years, then solves his own medical mystery. In Revolution From My Bed: Regain Control of Your Life as a Patient, Roi Shternin offers a wakeup call to doctors and a call to action for chronically ill patients.
Rejecting the doctor’s dire pronouncement he would never walk again, nor marry or have children, Shternin regains full control of his life. A real-life medical mystery, turned into a medical wonder, he diagnosed himself with a not-so-rare condition (POTS Syndrome). At 27, Shternin taught himself to walk and talk again, then persevered through the following five years of periodic relapses. Fully rehabilitated, on reintegrating back into society, he discovered his mission: patients need a revolution. He founded The Patient School, where people learn self-advocacy to take charge of their medical journey, and discover how to gamify and baby step their way to increased health and vitality.
“I woke up the night of my ultimate collapse at 23, drenched in sweat, pain, and sorrow, sicker than I’d ever been. This marked the beginning of five solid years condemned to my bed. Surrounded by ugly, blinking, cliche neon lights, everything beeped. People moaned. Powerless. All dignity lost. I became the old lady in the corridor, the ugly face of healthcare. Every day, an invalid confined to my bed, I woke to the fear, ‘There is no recovery for me.’ Left to my own devices, to die – alone. This is my story.”