Sacks, in a futile attempt to remain calm, lost his composure and tumbled down the side of the mountain landing atop his twisted left leg.

Sacks made a makeshift splint to immobilize his injured leg in order to slowly slide down the mountain, though he lost hope as the sun began setting.

Fortunately, a couple of reindeer hunters found Sacks lying on the path during the last bits of light and were able to transport him to a local hospital for treatment.

It had become quite obvious that the leg was not healing properly upon the arrival of the physiotherapist and Sacks' inability to contract the quadriceps no matter how hard he had tried.

Unfortunately, the physicians treating Sacks did not acknowledge his illness on the basis that the operation was a success and anything that the patient was experiencing was simply a result of his own hysteria.

Two weeks following the operation, Sacks begins to experience involuntary electrical pulses down his leg - something he attributed to neurological recovery.

"[2] Ronald Carson from Johns Hopkins University Press wrote "A Leg to Stand On is a marvelous mixture of neurological observation, psychological insight, mystical experience, and speculative vision.

"[3] Jon Stone of the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, writing for the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry defined it "a unique autobiographical account of functional paralysis".