Left Foot Foremost

In 24 years of bitter poverty Mrs. Patrick Brown, a Dublin bricklayer's wife, bore 22 children, but only 13 lived. Halfway down the line came Christy. He could not hold his head up and his mouth, was lopsided. His hands jerked violently with no coordination; his right leg was equally useless. Doctors told Mrs. Brown that Christy was an imbecile (actually he had cerebral palsy from a brain injury before or during birth) and that his case was hopeless. With the medical knowledge of the early 1930s, the doctors were not far wrong.

But when he was five the wordless, spastic child grabbed a piece of chalk in the toes of his left foot, and showed that he had control of one limb. Between confinements, his indomitable mother taught him the alphabet. When he was seven Christy spelled out MOTHER. It was one of the proudest moments that Christy Brown, now 22, reports in his autobiography, My Left Foot (Simon & Schuster; $3). From that moment, though unschooled, Christy went on to painting and writing stories, always with his left foot. Relying on that same limb, he had himself thrown into a canal by his brothers, and swam the first time.

Orthopedist Robert Collis saw him when he was twelve. Though Collis could do nothing then, he never forgot the boy. Six years later, when he set up a clinic in Dublin, Dr. Collis looked Christy up. Experts decided that at 18 Christy could be taught to speak intelligibly, to walk a little and to use his hands--provided that he would swear off using his left foot. This versatile limb was helping to keep him a cripple. When younger, Christy had got around in a gocart; later he often traveled on his brother's shoulders.

Christy got on the floor at Dr. Collis' new clinic alongside infants and children, and painstakingly practiced the most elementary muscle-training exercises. Dr. Collis, an amateur playwright, also coached Christy in his writing. He learned a simple, straightforward style which helps him to convey a deep understanding of the problems of the cerebral palsied. Now he can talk to strangers and walk across a room. As reward for long forbearance, Christy is allowed to use his left foot for such special tasks as creative writing (his autobiography was written entirely in this way).

The medical lesson of My Left Foot is that even a young adult can be saved from the worst horrors of cerebral palsy. As for Christy Brown, he has use of the royalties to fix up his study, and now has an electric typewriter, which even his jumpy fingers can operate. Now he can keep the shoe on his left foot.

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