Friday, November 18, 2005

Stephen Hawking Flatlines, Then Goes On WIth Presentation


Stephen Hawking, seen here in an October photo, suffered a
temporary medical setback this week that stranded the physicist
and his entourage in the Bay Area.

Image source: MSNBC / Thomas Lohnes / AFP - Getty Images


Alan Boyle writes in MSNBC News:

When you're recounting the drama of cosmic origins, the show must go on — even if you're a quadriplegic recovering from a medical crisis.

At least that was the theatrical rule that world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking followed this week, in the wake of a medical episode that kept him and his entourage from traveling to Seattle for a sold-out lecture on the origins of the universe.

Wednesday's appearance at the Paramount Theatre — presented by the Oregon-based Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy, or ISEPP — was the last of three scheduled stops on the Cambridge professor's U.S. lecture tour. Hawking, who suffers from a progressive neurodegenerative disease that has almost completely paralyzed him, was due to travel to Seattle from San Francisco. But when he was taken off his respirator Monday morning, "he basically flat-lined," said Terry Bristol, ISEPP's president and executive director.

More here.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home