Book picks similar to
Knife Edge: Life as a Special Forces Surgeon by Richard Villar
non-fiction
medical
of-self
autobiography
The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology
Stephen T. Sinatra - 2005
Sinatra discusses the importance of energy metabolism on cardiovascular health and the positive impact these three energy-supplying nutrients, CoQ10, carnitine, ribose, have on the cardiovascular system. Readers will learn how these miraculous nutrients work throughout the body, essentially charging up every body cell to function at optimal capacity.
A Question of Murder: Compelling Cases from a Famed Forensic Pathologist
Cyril H. Wecht - 2008
Cyril Wecht. During the past four decades, he has dissected more than 16,000 bodies to determine how and why they died. He has testified in hundreds of trials and exhumed dozens of corpses. He’s investigated the deaths of presidents and princes, coal miners and Hollywood stars. From the tragic homicides of Laci Peterson and Nicole Brown Simpson to the mysteries that surround the deaths of JonBenét Ramsey and Natalee Hollaway, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, the New York Times, and others, call upon Dr. Wecht to provide his expert analysis.The expertise of one of the leading forensic pathologists in the world and accomplished true-crime journalist Dawna Kaufmann come together to present five fascinating cases in this riveting page-turner filled with many details available nowhere else:• Who or what killed Anna Nicole Smith? Who or what killed her young son, Daniel Smith? Was his death associated with Anna Nicole’s own demise just months later? Dr. Wecht—who was hired to do an independent autopsy on the body of Daniel Smith—considers whether someone attempted to get one or both of them out of the way. • Who killed twelve-year-old Stephanie Crowe, who was found stabbed to death in the hallway of her home? Dr. Wecht’s acumen helped straighten out a baffling whodunit that had left local law enforcement going down the wrong path.• Should David Westerfield be on death row for the murder of his seven-year-old neighbor, Danielle van Dam? What were the mistakes and victories in that dramatic trial?• During the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, did medical professionals at a distinguished New Orleans hospital purposely inject elderly patients with heart-stopping medications? What does the evidence say?
The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
Theresa Brown - 2015
In the span of twelve hours, lives can be lost, life-altering medical treatment decisions made, and dreams fulfilled or irrevocably stolen. In Brown’s skilled hands--as both a dedicated nurse and an insightful chronicler of events--we are given an unprecedented view into the individual struggles as well as the larger truths about medicine in this country, and by shift’s end, we have witnessed something profound about hope and healing and humanity. Every day, Theresa Brown holds patients' lives in her hands. On this day there are four. There is Mr. Hampton, a patient with lymphoma to whom Brown is charged with administering a powerful drug that could cure him--or kill him; Sheila, who may have been dangerously misdiagnosed; Candace, a returning patient who arrives (perhaps advisedly) with her own disinfectant wipes, cleansing rituals, and demands; and Dorothy, who after six weeks in the hospital may finally go home. Prioritizing and ministering to their needs takes the kind of skill, sensitivity, and, yes, humor that enable a nurse to be a patient’s most ardent advocate in a medical system marked by heartbreaking dysfunction as well as miraculous success.
Pandemics: Our Fears and the Facts (Kindle Single)
Sunetra Gupta - 2013
As recently as 1918, a pandemic of influenza claimed over 50 million lives worldwide. The advent of drugs and vaccines led to an era of hope when we thought our battles with infectious disease were won, but our optimism has been eroded by the recognition that many pathogens have the capacity to transform themselves and escape our efforts to eradicate them. Are we now facing an inevitable repeat of a calamity such as the 1918 influenza pandemic or the Black Death? Can we anticipate and thwart such an event, or are we wilfully creating the conditions that would promote the emergence of new and highly virulent human infectious disease?Sunetra Gupta is Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford specialising in infectious diseases. She holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from the University of London. She has been awarded the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific research. She is also a novelist whose books have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Southern Arts Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Crossword Award, and longlisted for the DSC and Orange Prizes.