Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds [Hardcover]

Sanjay Gupta (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 044650887X | ISBN-13: 978-0446508872 | Publication Date: October 12, 2009 | Edition: 1

An unborn baby with a fatal heart defect . . . a skier submerged for an hour in a frozen Norwegian lake . . . a comatose brain surgery patient whom doctors have declared a "vegetable."

Twenty years ago all of them would have been given up for dead, with no realistic hope for survival. But today, thanks to incredible new medical advances, each of these individuals is alive and well . . .Cheating Death.

In this riveting book, Dr. Sanjay Gupta-neurosurgeon, chief medical correspondent for CNN, and bestselling author-chronicles the almost unbelievable science that has made these seemingly miraculous recoveries possible. A bold new breed of doctors has achieved amazing rescues by refusing to accept that any life is irretrievably lost. Extended cardiac arrest, "brain death," not breathing for over an hour-all these conditions used to be considered inevitably fatal, but they no longer are. Today, revolutionary advances are blurring the traditional line between life and death in fascinating ways.

Drawing on real-life stories and using his unprecedented access to the latest medical research, Dr. Gupta dramatically presents exciting accounts of how pioneering physicians and researchers are altering our understanding of how the human body functions when it comes to survival-and why more and more patients who once would have died are now alive. From experiments with therapeutic hypothermia to save comatose stroke or heart attack victims to lifesaving operations in utero to the study of animal hibernation to help wounded soldiers on far-off battlefields, these remarkable case histories transform and enrich all our assumptions about the true nature of death and life.

Editorial Reviews

From 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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"You will be on the edge of your seat as you read the superbly crafted stories of people who have beaten the odds, something I like to think I know quite a bit about. My friend Dr. Sanjay Gupta, America's doctor, has written a page-turner. It's an exciting medical thriller with the compassion, hope, excitement and aspiration that define Sanjay." --Lance Armstrong

"Dr. Gupta's new book is not only fascinating, it reads like a fast-paced adventure story, and it is. Full of literally heart-stopping moments, CHEATING DEATH is an account of modern-day scientific miracles, most of which would have been unthinkable a decade or two ago, and which expand the very boundaries of life itself." --Oliver Sacks

"I owe my recovery and my health to medical advances and the remarkable pioneers behind them. In his new book, the World's Doctor, Sanjay Gupta, delivers a breathtaking preview of a coming revolution in medicine that challenges virtually everything we think we know about living and dying. A truly provocative and fascinating reading experience." --President Bill Clinton

"Sanjay Gupta melds dramatic stories of people on the cusp of death rescued by life-saving advances. This book deeply touches the heart and enlightens the mind." --Jerome Groopman, M.D., Recanati Professor, Harvard Medical School, Author of How Doctors Think

"In Cheating Death, Dr. Sanjay Gupta chronicles a series of scientific advances that are saving patients' lives in striking and almost unfathomable ways. This is a wonderful book....All who read it will walk away feeling a sense of joy in the changes that Dr. Gupta so carefully and warmly details." --Henry S. Friedman, MD, James B. Powell, Jr. Professor of Neuro-Oncology; Deputy Director, The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center

"Dr. Gupta has masterfully woven compelling human stories and medical drama that intersect that narrow line separating life from death. The brave doctors who courageously defy conventional wisdom and embrace bold science and the human condition will have you cheering and shaking your head in amazement." --Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D., NBC News Chief Medical Editor; Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Life & Style; 1 edition (October 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044650887X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446508872
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lively, October 11, 2009

By 

Sara (CARLSBAD, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds (Hardcover)

Cheating Death is an incredibly well-organized, informative and educational little tome. It reads like a novelized cross between a discovery health special and an episode of Rescue 911. The drama is there as Gupta details harrowing stories of near death intermixed with an accounting of the scientific possibility and theory surrounding all things death related. Along with chapters detailing new findings about CPR and the benefits of hypothermic treatment, Gupta surprises with medically dubious topics such as suspended animation, life after death, and miracles. It makes for a bizarre combination of topics, and an even more interesting read. The author utilizes an odd blend of first, second and third person narration which awkwardly works for the material. Gupta resists taking sides in any scientific debate allowing the heroic doctors, anecdotal cases, and studies to speak for him. Cheating Death covers a lot of technical subject matter, some of which is life saving information, but Gupta takes the time to walk the lay person through his terminology. I can not think of anyone who would not benefit from this read.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "When the heart stops beating, it's not the end.", October 27, 2009

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds (Hardcover)

What happens when blood no longer reaches the brain, organs begin to break down, and chemical reactions start destroying cells throughout the body? The answer is no longer as obvious as it once was. In "Cheating Death," Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and popular correspondent, describes some remarkable cases in which physicians managed to revive patients whose condition seemed hopeless. Sixty-three year old Zeyad Barazanji was working out on a treadmill when he was felled by a massive heart attack. "His heart pumped no blood, his brain sent no signals, [and] he thought no thoughts." Nevertheless, he recovered and went on to live a normal life. We know now that "death is not a single event, but a process that may to bbe interrupted, even reversed." Although this notion sounds fanciful, today there are "myriad ways that modern science is changing our understanding of life and death."

Gupta tells us about a man who is diagnosed with a brain tumor that is almost invariably fatal; a fetus with a life-threatening heart defect; a skier who falls through the ice and remains trapped beneath its surface for over forty minutes; and a hiker who stumbles, hits his head, and remains on the ground for twenty-four days before he is rescued. The story of these and other individuals demonstrates "that the human body can survive far longer than we usually bargain for." There are various techniques, such as therapeutic hypothermia, that can buy valuable time for those in extremis by staving off shock, controlling blood flow, and reducing the body's need for oxygen. Are these methods guaranteed to work every time, and are they used in every hospital? Absolutely not. However, researchers are constantly investigating new lifesaving protocols, some of which hold great promise.

The author's writing style, although not jargon-free, is accessible, lively, and engrossing. In addition, Gupta's revealing interviews with the pioneers of resuscitative medicine suggest that certain experimental practices may someday become part of mainstream emergency care. Although the book has extensive endnotes, it lacks an index, which would have been useful. In addition, Gupta does not adequately explain the differences between "brain death" and "persistent vegetative state," terms that are unclear to most laymen. Nevertheless, "Cheating Death" does offer an exciting look at the various ways in which "doctors and medical miracles ...are saving lives against all odds."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening read on the aspect of life and death..., January 16, 2010

By 

Travis Stein (Houston, TX (USA)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds (Hardcover)

I've always been fascinated by the vast field of medicine and new therapies/medicines/techniques for saving lives. Some of our greatest challenges include finding out just how in the world our cells work in order to fix the best we can fix things like cancer, tumors, terminal diseases, and brain swelling among many others. In Cheating Death, the reader gets a nice look at what kinds of revolutionary new techniques are being used across the world to save patients that would have normally been given a finite amount of time to live and then die. For example, hypothermia can actually be used to reduce swelling in crucial areas of the body and even the brain that can give doctors more time to work with the patient and see if there is anything they can do for them while the swelling goes down. In another instance, Dr. Gupta describes some of the bold techniques that involve actually operating in the uterus on the unborn child itself to save it from potentially fatal pre-birth defects and/or a shortened lifespan once born. As a science fan, I was the most intrigued when Cheating Death discussed the out of body experiences that people can have when they are in cardiac arrest or in some form of "brain death". I've always wondered if these experiences were just made up out of either the person's religious beliefs or something else. The answer from the book is that it's not 100% clear just what causes these episodes. Some physicians believe it is the lack of oxygen to the brain that causes these experiences while others believe cardiac arrest/brain death can induce a form of REM-intrusion sleep and that is how people have near death experiences. The big questions that this topic presents are those such as is consciousness something that can or cannot be separated from the mind? Who knows? Can God actually be generated by stimulating certain parts of the brain only?

Cheating Death doesn't fully answer these questions, but it definitely gets the reader thinking about just how complex and philosophical these questions can be sometimes and also just the subjective nature of them. There does seem to be a little bit of tension over whether Dr. Gupta's interviews/science behind some of his chapters are correct or not. Thus far only one person on this product page has actively made it his mission to troll every reviewers comments and criticize the book. As someone that's taken a few human anatomy and physiology classes, at least 80% or so of what Dr. Gupta wrote down in Cheating Death seems pretty accurate. Again, I'm not a neurosurgeon but it seems fairly petty to nit pick over details of what people do or do not consider to be brain death, comas, vegetative states, semi vegetative states, etc. It's a complicated topic that's very much open to interpretation. To say someone is dead wrong when the leaders in the field of neuroscience are not even 100% sure of the difference between brain death and vegetative states seems a little over the top. I'd like to genuinely hear from other practicing physicians and/or medical students on this matter since it seems to be causing some discord among those who have reviewed the book so far. I like the fact that we all have our opinions and can certainly criticize a book if we choose to. However, I disagree with unfair criticism when it's constantly being spouted off by just one reviewer and no one else (aside from one time reviewers and reviewers that have long gaps in between each review). I'd like to hear what others have to say as well that actually have some medical knowledge behind them.

Overall, I took this book for what it was - which was an enjoyable read and a book that the pages flew by in as I learned a bit more about the history of medicine and how different it is today versus back then. If the author happened to confuse some controversial terms and got them wrong is a matter of opinion. It didn't stop me from enjoying the overall product of Cheating Death. It's not a perfect book but it's a nice piece of the puzzle that keeps us up to date with the latest techniques/therapies in medicine and for that reason alone I'd recommend picking it up. It's a relatively short book at 256 pages and definitely not a door-stop! :)

-Travis S.