British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who turned 71 this January, was so ill in 1985 that doctors offered to turn off his life support machine, a new documentary film on the world-renowned scientist revealed Sunday.
Hawking, a twice-divorced academic and father of three, was then writing his bestseller, A Brief History Of Time, the Sunday Times reported.
Prof. Hawking is one of the longest-surviving sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has left him almost completely paralysed and wheelchair-bound. He uses a computer synthesiser to speak.
He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge till October 2009, and is now a professor emeritus there. He developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as a student at Cambridge when he was 21, and was not expected to survive for more than a couple of years. But he has led a vigorous academic life and is still leading research and guiding students at Cambridge. In the documentary Hawking, the scientist reveals that he had contracted pneumonia while writing his book. It was his first wife, Jane Hawking, who had turned own the option.