Gone: A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life

A triple amputee physician’s memoir of resilience, love, and difficult decisions—essential reading for the amputee, Parkinson’s, and rehabilitation medicine communities.

For the 2 million Americans living with limb loss, for every family navigating a Parkinson’s diagnosis, and for rehabilitation professionals who sit with patients and try to describe how full life can still look—this book was written for you.

In 1979, Linda Olson was a third-year radiology resident visiting Germany with her husband, Dave, when a train struck their van. In seconds, she lost both legs and her right arm. When she saw Dave after surgery, she told him she would understand if he left. He said: “I didn’t marry your arms or your legs. If you can do it, I can do it.”

As a triple amputee in the early 1980s, long before the Americans with Disabilities Act, Linda completed her radiology residency while pregnant and living alone and went on to build a thirty-year career as Professor of Radiology and Director of Breast Imaging at UC San Diego. Gone—a Parade best memoir of the year and IPPY Gold Medal winner—is the book a peer visitor leaves with a new amputee, an APDA chapter director puts on the reading list, and a rehabilitation physician hands to a patient and says: This is what possible looks like.