Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles That Are Saving Lives Against All Odds
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SAVING LIVES AGAINST ALL ODDS A 12-week old unborn baby with a fatal heart defect...a skier drowned for an hour in a frozen Norwegian lake...a comatose brain surgery patient...a teenager with four rapidly expanding tumors. Twenty years ago all of them would have been given up for dead-with no realistic hope for their survival. But today, thanks to incredible new advances by pioneering physicians and medical researchers, each of these individuals is alive and well, having literally cheated death. Dr. Sanjay Gupta-neurosurgeon, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, and bestselling author-in Cheating Death, chronicles the almost unbelievable science that has made these seemingly miraculous recoveries possible, recoveries achieved by a bold new breed of doctors who refuse to accept that any life is irretrievably lost. Drawing on extensive case files and his unprecedented access to breaking news in his field, Dr. Gupta clearly and dramatically explains how revolutionary technological advances are extending our understanding of the human body's survival mechanism-and literally shifting the line between life and death. Through these deeply personal and often moving stories of medical triumphs over almost unthinkable barriers, Dr. Gupta transforms all our assumptions about the limits at the beginning and end of human life. Publishers Weekly High-profile physician-journalist Gupta—a medical reporter for CNN and columnist for Time who declined President Obama's nomination to be surgeon general—knows a great story when he hears one, and in this collection he rolls out extraordinarily harrowing and inspiring tales from the annals of they-ought-to-be-dead. When there is an injury, a heart attack or any loss of oxygen to the brain, time is the essential factor in determining whether a patient will live. For instance, “therapeutic hypothermia,” by reducing the brain's need for oxygen immediately after a trauma, allows more time for treatments to work. Gupta also notes that lives can be saved through incremental changes to current medical techniques rather than revolutionary breakthroughs. Eliminating the breathing component from CPR and concentrating only on chest compressions has been shown to raise heart attack survival rates to an unheard-of 20%. The achievements are stunning, though Gupta notes “none of the exciting medical changes that we've come across will eliminate the sense of awe and mystery that stalks our notions of death.” Yet it's beyond comforting to know there are doctors who simply refuse to quit a brave but ultimately losing battle to wrestle control over death. (Oct. 12)
