Cheating Death

June 29, 2009
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.

July 1, 2009
In this followup to Chasing Life (2007), neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Gupta illustrates just how fuzzy the line between life and death can be, and explains what medicine and science are doing to blur it even further.

When the heart stops, when tests indicate"brain death," when a patient hasn't breathed for an hour or more—these have long been understood as hard-and-fast markers of death. Gupta uses real-life stories to reveal how ambiguous these situations actually are: a skier who was successfully resuscitated after spending more than an hour frozen underwater; a man who emerged from a coma unscathed after having been declared a"vegetable"; a 22-week-old fetus whose damaged heart was repaired in utero. These stories and the science behind them are rounded out with a look at those who seek to cheat death even further. Researchers challenge the status quo on CPR, doctors experiment with"therapeutic hypothermia" and scientists seek to induce suspended animation in injured soldiers by mimicking the chemistry of hibernating animals. Gupta always presents fascinating information, even if the prose is occasionally clumsy and the storytelling inelegant. The author tries to bring a balanced perspective to each issue. The chapter on"Cheating Death in the Womb," for instance, includes a much-needed counterpoint by a sociologist who emphasizes that pregnant women are patients in their own right, not simply fetal"heart-lung machines." Because Gupta focuses only on the"medical miracles," however, he misses an opportunity for an important cost-benefit analysis of the highly risky and often-unsuccessful attempts to"cheat death."

Well-informed and accessible, but incomplete.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
CNN correspondent Gupta presents individual stories of medical "miracles" that demonstrate the power of medicine today. He tells how therapeutic hypothermia can save lives by lowering body temperatures, similar to an animal's hibernation state. He looks at experimental forms of CPR that might improve usage and save more lives. There's a chapter on new treatments for brain tumors and one on research into near-death experiences. Ending with the changing definition of "death" through the years, from cardiac death to brain death to something else that is difficult to define, Gupta leaves readers wondering not only about medical miracles but also how future doctors will determine who's really dead and when. As one of the interviewed researchers says, "That's not so dead." VERDICT This book is all over the place as far as the medical anecdotes go, but it has a friendly, narrative, storytelling feel that will satisfy fans of popular science. Gupta's last book, "Chasing Life", hit the best-sellers lists; expect demand at public libraries from CNN viewers and readers of popular nonfiction. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/15/09.]Elizabeth Williams, Washoe Cty. Lib. Syst., Reno, NV

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2009
Death is not an event, but a process that can be interrupted, even reversed, according to surgeon and medical reporter Gupta, who promises a medical thriller and delivers. Gupta examines several case studies where patients have literally cheated death by surviving horrendous accidents and diseases against all reasonable odds: a young woman who suffered a skiing accident and was considered clinically dead for three hours before a doctor attempted to revive her; a 63-year-old scholar who collapsed of heart failure in a gym in New York; a Michigan teenager diagnosed with virulent brain cancer. Gupta also profiles the ice doctor who uses hypothermia to suspend life and death and discusses the pioneering techniques used by the defense department to suspend body functions and allow time to get wounded soldiers to medical facilities. Drawing on his own practice and interviews with patients, doctors, and researchers, Gupta offers fascinating cases that challenge assumptions about where the line is between life and death, tackling controversial subjects such as stem-cell research and vegetative comas, near-death experiences and fetal surgery. He also explores the maddening balance between continuing current protocols and daring to study new methods that dont rely on new technology or drugs. A thoroughly fascinating look at medicine, ethics, religion, law, and the economics of life and death.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)