42 | JULY 6 • 2023 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

W

hen Irving Fox 
graduated top 
of his class from 
Montreal’s McGill University 
Medical School in 1967, he 
looked forward to a smooth, 
successful future. Little did 
he know that within a few 
years he would be struck by a 
debilitating mysterious illness 
that would temporarily upend 
his promising plans. Now, 
more than 50 years later, Fox, 
who lived in Ann Arbor from 
1976-1990, set out to revisit the 
mystery of his illness that had 
baffled doctors. 
In his inspiring new book, 
The Flashing Light: A Medical 
Mystery Memoir (PYP Publish 
Your Purpose), Fox explores 
what happened to him and 
how that experience shaped his 
life moving forward. 
“I have always intended to 
look back and put together 
the pieces of what happened 
to me,
” says Fox, 79. “When 
I was ill, I wrote notes about 
my illness. They were stored 
in my basement and while 
everyone was isolated during 
the pandemic, it seemed like a 
good time to read them over, 
obtain my old medical records 
and speak to people who knew 
me then and fill in the blanks. 
I also wanted to share my story 
to help others.
”
Fox’s incapacitating health 

ordeal started in 1968 when he 
was 24 years old, married to 
Gloria and a second-year resi-
dent at a McGill teaching hos-
pital in Montreal. The abrupt 
onset of symptoms began with 
a temporary pulsating blue 
light that returned a few weeks 
later with terrifying conse-
quences. 
“
At first doctors thought it 
was a migraine,
” recalls Fox, 
who had worried about it being 
a brain tumor. “
A few days later, 
my friend called me when I 
was at work. I was talking to 
him while standing at the nurs-
ing station, and I had a general-
ized seizure while I was on the 
phone with him. I blacked out 
and wound up at the Montreal 
Neurological Hospital where I 
stayed for 13 days.
”
After a complete medical 
workup, scans, tests and pain-
ful procedures, they ruled 
out a brain tumor and brain 
scarring. There were changes 
in the spinal fluid showing 
inflammation, which might be 
associated with acute encepha-
litis. But about two weeks later, 
Fox developed bizarre behavior, 
suffered hallucinations, couldn’t 
distinguish right from left, was 
confused, displayed psychosis 
and wound up at the Allen 
Memorial Institute, a psychiat-
ric hospital. “I was loaded with 
anti-psychotic medications and 

some of the doctors assumed it 
was viral encephalitis. 
The doctors never knew the 
diagnosis for sure since tech-
nology for diagnosing viruses 
was primitive back then. If it 
happened today, it wouldn’t be 
a mystery, considering all the 
medical advances and tech-
nologies available. “I was so 
severely ill it is hard to believe 
that I got better,
” he says. “But 
I did.
” 
Fortunately, his nightmare 
was over in three months, and 
he was able to forge ahead with 
his career and start a family 
— he went on to have three 
daughters. With a career in 
medicine, he had an interest in 
academic medicine including 
research. 
After a two-year postdoctoral 
research fellowship and one-
year senior medical residency 
at Duke University, he moved 
to the University of Toronto’s 
Wellesley Hospital. From there, 
he was recruited to be on staff 
at the University of Michigan. 
He became director of U-M’s 
clinical research center and 
managed to turn the program 
around. Later, he became 
interim rheumatology division 
chief. 

While living in Ann Arbor, 
he was very active in the Jewish 
community and president of 
Temple Beth Emeth for two 
years. “We loved living in Ann 
Arbor,
” he says. “It was a won-
derful, welcoming community 
and we had a good life there. 
The United States declared a 
shortage of physicians, so we 
were able to get a green card to 
extend our stay.
” 
Ultimately, he says he wanted 
to have an impact on medical 
care and, in 1991, he left Ann 
Arbor and moved to Boston to 
work in biotech and pharma. 
He became vice president at 
Biogen where a big achieve-
ment was developing the drug 
Avonex, the first biologic 
treatment for multiple sclerosis 

“You can get through it,” 
physician says in new book.

A Medical 
Mystery 
Memoir

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Irving Fox

