The Blink of an Eye: A Memoir of Dying--And Learning How to Live Again

nA highly personal, deeply affecting account of what it is to be yanked from a happy, well-ordered life and thrust into a sudden, unimaginable, terrifying darkness. Rikke Schmidt Kj rgaard has done the impossible of putting into words an experience that would seem to be beyond expressing.--from the foreword by Bill Bryson n It was New Year's Day. Rikke Schmidt Kj rgaard, a young mother and scientist, was celebrating with family and friends when she was struck down with a sudden fever. Within hours, she'd suffered multiple organ failure and was clinically dead. n n Then, brought back to the edge of life--trapped in a near-death coma--she was given a 5 percent chance of survival. She awoke to find herself completely paralyzed, with blinking as her sole means of communicating with the outside world. n nThe Blink of an Eye is Rikke's gripping account of being locked inside her own body, and what it took to painstakingly relearn every basic life skill--from breathing and swallowing, speaking and walking, to truly living again. Much more than an account of recovery against all odds--this is, at its heart, a celebration of love, family, and every little thing that matters when life hangs in the balance.n