When Breath Becomes Air

Dear reader, Paul Kalanithi was Chief Resident in Neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In the last year of his residency, he had a brilliant future at his doorstep. He had his pick of fellowships at top hospitals across the country. He was being courted by cutting-edge research departments. He had a loving wife, and a newborn daughter.

Paul had spent his life consumed with the question “of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life.” He first explored literature and philosophy, attending Stanford and Cambridge. He found, however, that it was one step removed from an essential understanding of the experience that he sought. He turned to medicine, specialising in neurosurgery, helping patient after patient deal with the hardest of circumstances. He saw death; tragedy; the loss of identity.

And then he was diagnosed with terminal stage IV lung cancer. Paul spent the next two years in the same hospital he had worked in so many years, dealing with the same fight that he had helped so many through. It was, and must have always seemed, a battle that could not be won.

So instead, he sat down to write, to chronicle his journey; his struggle; his coming to terms with death.

And then he died.

It may seem that a promising young man, on the verge of greatness, had everything taken away from him and his family. But through this tragedy, Paul has touched millions of people with his book, When Breath Becomes Air. He has touched far more peoples’ lives, and has reached a far deeper understanding of the subject he spent his life exploring, than he ever could have through working as a doctor.

Yours Sincerely,
Henry Chong