Some patients are far more baffling than others. Whether they present with symptoms that don’t add up or come from a mysterious background, the cases in these books left doctors stumped and hunting for answers. Would you have made the diagnosis before other doctors or handled the case differently? Find out while engrossed in these medical mysteries.

Brain on Fire: My Month Of Madness

By Susannah Cahalan

Hospitalized with delusions, memory loss and fits of rage, 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan was on the verge of being misdiagnosed a schizophrenic and institutionalized. But after a lucky encounter with one particular doctor, a simple test revealed her true illness and allowed her to recover. As a successful journalist, Cahalan recounts her horrific tale with researched insights on her condition and gripping prose.

Every Patient Tells A Story: Medical Mysteries And The Art Of Diagnosis

By Lisa Sanders, MD

Doctors are trained to look for horses — not zebras. Which is exactly why it can be so difficult for patients with rare illnesses to get the right verdict. There are ways for the medical system to improve its approach to diagnostics, however. Using her own experience as a medical detective hunting for zebra-like illnesses in a perplexing maze of symptoms, the author serves up an astute must-read for patients and physicians alike. 

The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery

By D.T. Max

Unfortunately for one family in Italy, a bad night’s sleep is more than a nuisance — it’s a death sentence. Plagued by a rare and mysterious illness, select members of the family have been afflicted by a fatal kind of insomnia for more than 200 years. Using history, medical research and journalistic instincts, the author unravels their ongoing tragedy, and shows how it ties into a class of equally horrific neurological disorders.

The Woman With a Worm In Her Head: And Other True Stories Of Infectious Disease

By Pamela Nagami, MD

While this popular read follows one doctor’s most peculiar cases — a man with chickenpox covering every inch of his skin, a patient dying from a fungus contracted from dust in the desert, and, yes, a woman with a worm in her head — it’s about much more than medical oddities. With every patient afflicted with a different infection, the doctor calmly navigates medical and ethical dilemmas while continually waging a life-and-death battle against one of the medical world’s greatest foes.