Professor Stephen Hawking has died

[Ellie]

Found this interesting article in The Lancet re Stephen Hawking's long survival

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...jbs_etoc_email

[Terry]

I never knew he had a tracheostomy operation.

I think a the other reasons were because he could carry on with his profession and could think about that as well as get the best nursing etc.

Love Terry

[Charlescic]

You are right. The whole era of science has ended. He was one of the greatest and brightest minds of this century. I remember myself when I was a student. I was inspired by black holes theory and other his works.
RIP Stephen Hawking...
May the stars you loved so much will be your home...

[nunhead_man]

Hi Terry

I never knew he had a tracheostomy operation

Strangely, I saw the Stephen Hawking film between the time I had the 1st signs of MND and the time I was diagnosed. I have always wondered if the decision to go for tracheostomy was driven by the fact that he lived so much in his head and had 3 Intel engineers supporting him, so he knew even without his real voice he could get stuff out of his head out to the world

Warmly

[Ellie]

Andy,

Stephen Hawking had an emergency tracheostomy in 1985 due to a life threatening bout of pneumonia, while away in Switzerland (or maybe France??)

He was horrified when he woke up and realised his voice, weak though it was, had gone because of the trache. It preceded his Intel days and initially he used an alphabet board to communicate.

He made a very good biographical documentary for Channel 4 in 2013, which is well worth watching and available on YouTube.

Love Ellie.