The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

In this chapter, Bauby tells us that the Naval Hospital—which he interchangeably calls “Berck”—shifted its focus away from caring for children after World War II. He then breaks down the categories of patients that are housed by the hospital. In one section there are comatose patients “at death’s door” (31). Bauby states that the presence of these patients looms over the others, “almost like a guilty conscience” (31). There is also a wing for the elderly and one for obese patients. He then specifies that the bulk of the hospital’s patients are “survivors of sport, of the highway, and of every possible and imaginable kind of domestic accident” (32). Since these patients remain in Berck for temporary periods—until they have sufficiently recovered from their injuries—Bauby terms them “tourists.”

He then specifies that there are a few other patients like him—“broken-winged birds, voiceless parrots, ravens of doom, who have made [their] nest in a dead-end corridor of the neurology department” (32). He sardonically remarks that he and his compatriots spoil the view for others. He then paints a picture of the physical therapy room, in which “the tourists” are allowed to perform their exercises with minimal supervision, while he lies, prone, and tied to an inclined board that slowly raised to a vertical position.