In 1985, Stephen Hawking caught pneumonia in Switzerland.
The doctors gave his wife 2 options:
1. Let them end his life
2. Watch him die
So she chose option 3. Here's what she did instead: 🧵
At CERN in Switzerland, Hawking's condition deteriorated rapidly.
His ALS-weakened lungs couldn't fight the pneumonia. Every breath was a battle.
The ventilator kept him alive, but doctors said it was just prolonging the inevitable...
Jane Hawking sat by his hospital bed, watching her husband slip away.
The father of their three children. The genius whose mind still raced with theories about black holes and the beginning of time.
The Swiss doctors were certain:
He was beyond saving.
The medical team called Jane aside. Their message was clear:
"We can end his suffering now, or..."
She looked at Stephen, motionless except for the slight movement of his cheek muscle - his only way of communicating....
That tiny muscle twitch was how he'd been writing groundbreaking physics papers.
How he'd been working on his masterpiece, "A Brief History of Time."
The doctors saw a dying man. Jane saw a mind still burning with ideas.
Here's what Jane said: ↓
The doctors explained again: His condition was hopeless.
But Jane demanded something unprecedented - an emergency transfer to Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital.
"He won't survive the flight," they warned.
Jane's response: "We're taking that chance."
She arranged medical transport against all advice, knowing every minute could be his last.
At Addenbrooke's, doctors proposed a last-resort solution: a tracheotomy.
It would save his life, but Stephen would never speak naturally again.
The surgery succeeded.
The price: his voice.
But what seemed like a loss became revolutionary.
The speech synthesizer he received didn't just give him a new voice - it became iconic.
That robotic tone would soon explain the mysteries of the universe to millions.
In the 33 years that followed, Hawking:
• Completed "A Brief History of Time"
• Made groundbreaking discoveries about black holes
• Revolutionized our understanding of the universe's origins
None of it would have happened if Jane had listened to those Swiss doctors.
The world nearly lost not just a brilliant mind but decades of discoveries that changed our understanding of everything.
Years later, when asked about that moment, Jane said simply:
"I believed in Stephen's mind. As long as that brilliant mind was active, there was hope."
Sometimes, humanity's greatest breakthroughs hang by the thinnest thread.
- A wife's refusal to give up.
- A single "no" that echoed across decades.
- A decision that changed our understanding of the cosmos itself.
Stephen Hawking lived until 2018, defying every prediction.
He showed us that the impossible is often just waiting for someone stubborn enough to try.
And sometimes, all it takes is one person who refuses to let a light go out.
If you liked this thread, join the @GeniusGTX mission:
"School and society never taught you how to think for yourself."
My mission is to uncover the hidden wisdom in psychology and game theory for those who want to become a genius thinker.
Written by @toantruonggtx
