Heart--A History

Starred review from June 4, 2018
Cardiologist Jauhar (Intern) moves beautifully between “dual tracks” of “learning about the heart... but also what was in my heart,” with passages of memoir counterbalancing a lay-reader-friendly history of the development of cardiac medical technology. Covering enough physiology to make scientific details easily understood, Jahaur emphasizes how brave, desperate, and sometimes foolhardy experiments led to important developments, such as the heart-lung machine, which allows doctors to perform heart surgeries that take longer than a few minutes without causing brain damage. Alongside these medical success stories, Jauhar shares personal encounters with heart disease, through the deaths of family members and through his own diagnosis with coronary blockages. Jauhar achieves a balanced tone throughout, sharing profound admiration for what can be accomplished by treating the heart as a machine, while also urging the reader, and the medical community, not to undervalue of the significance of the “emotional heart.” To this end, he points to the fraught emotional dynamics of providing devices like defibrillators that can prolong life but also provoke traumatic stress and constant fear in the patients who use them. Throughout, Jauhar is thoughtful, self-reflective, and profoundly respectful of doctors and patients alike; readers will respond by opening their own hearts a little bit, to both grief and wonder. 22 b&w illus.

July 1, 2018
A cardiologist writes on his favorite organ.No one takes their heart for granted, especially not Jauhar (Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, 2014, etc.), director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Hospital who found unwelcome inspiration in learning that, at age 45, his coronary arteries were partly blocked. Already a bestselling author, he delivers a page-turning mixture of personal experience, family lore, health advice, and history with a heavy emphasis on medical dramatics. Throughout history, philosophers and other deep thinkers have given the heart primary place in human spiritual as well as physical life. For centuries, almost all of them were wrong about nearly everything, but scientific investigation revealed the truth without diminishing its role. The body's vital organs depend on a beating heart, but the heart operates independently. As the author notes, "the heart doesn't just pump blood to other organs, it pumps blood to itself. We must struggle to use our minds to change our way of thinking. But the heart is different. In a sense and unlike any other organ, the heart is self-sustaining." Jauhar's family history and medical education make regular appearances along with health advice--he suggests that stress damages coronary arteries as much as a bad diet--but mostly he recounts cardiology fireworks since the 19th century when surgeons first dared cut into a living heart (formerly, even more than the brain, a forbidden organ). Readers' jaws will drop and drop again at stories of daring researchers experimenting on themselves and pioneering surgeons leaving a trail of dead patients, many of them children, as they perfected machines, devices, and techniques that often work miracles, fixing fatally malformed hearts, correcting defects, and, when they succeed, extending lives.Another in the everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about genre, but a superior example.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2018

A cardiologist deftly intersperses his own medical journey, as it relates to his family and career, with a history of human understanding of the heart and advances in the field of cardiology. Beginning chapters, which focus on history, are intriguing, but the investigation really picks up as Jauhar delves into the monumental discoveries of the late 19th and 20th centuries. With accessible language, the author writes about Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, an African American surgeon, who performed the first open heart surgery in 1893. Jauhar describes in fascinating detail the invention of the heart lung machine, the development of the cardiac catheterization procedure, the advent of coronary angioplasties, the invention of the pacemaker, the first successful donor heart transplant, and the first mechanical heart, and reminds us of the significant impact that our emotional lives have on the health of our hearts. In fact, Jauhar argues that increasing progress in the field of cardiology will require a shift to a new paradigm-away from high-tech intervention and toward a comprehension of psychosocial factors. To treat our hearts, we also have to address issues such as poverty and stress. VERDICT An engaging mix of science and human interest, this is eminently readable nonfiction sure to appeal to science-oriented high school students.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
In his two previous works, Intern (2008) and Doctored (2014), Long Island heart specialist Jauhar drew on his own medical training to expose some of the darker aspects of contemporary American medicine. Shifting gears here with a more targeted insider's perception of the workings of the human heart, Jauhar nevertheless keeps the personal story line going by recounting his sometimes-unnerving experiences as a cardiologist while also providing fascinating profiles of the many groundbreaking scientists who unraveled the heart's mysteries over the centuries. A string of colorfully graphic anecdotes involving skewered and bleeding patients demonstrates how much daring physicians learned about the heart by confronting trauma with ingenuity, from German surgeon Ludwig Rehn, who verified the feasibility of cardiac repair in 1897, to William Greatbatch, an inventor who created the perfect lithium battery to power pacemakers and save millions of lives. Jauhar pairs medical history with revelations of his own family's tragic encounters with heart disease, delivering a deftly written and heartfelt (literally) contemplation of our most precious and often-misunderstood internal organ.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2018

Jauhar (Doctored; Intern) takes an enlightened, multifaceted look at the human heart throughout history, exploring its depiction in literature, art, folklore, religion, philosophy, and science. He further outlines modern medicine for the heart, bold experiments performed by brash scientists, accidental discoveries, brilliant successes, fatal failures, and lifesaving technological breakthroughs. Many personal and compelling stories are skillfully incorporated into this work, such as the impact of heart disease on Jauhar's own family and tales of complex interactions with patients. The author relates his experiences as a medical student, resident, and cardiologist, and describes the science behind the indivisible mind-heart bond and its impact on the latter with facts from studies and true accounts. VERDICT This captivating investigation deftly communicates the beauty, mystery, and scientific wonder of the human heart. Recommended for educated lay readers. [See Prepub Alert, 3/26/18.]--Karen White, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2018

A best-selling author (Doctored), New York Times contributor, and director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, cardiologist Jauhar examines the history of heart treatment, e.g., the first open-heart surgery, performed in 1893 by African American doctor Daniel Hale Williams, while considering the limits of medical technology and the heart ailments of both family members and patients. Big promotion.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.