Making Miracles Happen [Paperback]

Gregory White Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1998

Ten years ago, Gregory White Smith's doctors gave him three months to live.  He's still here.  Discover how he, and many others in this life-changing book, beat the odds and survived.

The news was grim.  Doctors at the prestigious Mayo Clinic told Greg Smith--young, handsome, and hard at work at the book that would one day win him a Pulitzer Prize--that he had an inoperable brain tumor.  They gave him three months to live.  Ten years later, Greg is fit, active, and managing his tumor with an experimental hormone therapy.

Like Greg, the other courageous people in this book--whose illnesses range from cystic fibrosis to cancer--have returned from the threshold of death.  They are all medical miracles.  Now you can learn how they made those miracles happen.  Not a survivor's memoir, but a survivor's handbook, this extraordinary book weaves the insights of doctors and the wisdom of patients into a road map anyone can follow out of the dark fears of dying.

Discover:
The one thing that makes the difference between life and death --taking control
Practical steps to finding the best doctor and the best care
Your own research...how to do it, why your life depends on it
What you need to ask before beginning an experimental treatment
Why even if there isn't a cure now, there may be tomorrow--and how to live long enough to get it...and more

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

It is everyone's worst nightmare: an inoperable brain tumor, a dire prognosis. At this point, one might naturally give up in despair and compose oneself for the end as best one could. But not Smith (coauthor, with partner Naifeh, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jackson Pollock). From the December day in 1986 when Smith received the shattering diagnosis, the reader is taken on his harrowing quest to beat the odds. First there are the external obstacles intrinsic to medicine and medical economics. (It should be noted?without surprise?that Smith is particularly critical of the system of medical insurance in this country.) Smith also deals with the internal obstacles, especially the temptation of the seriously ill toward a "Why me?" self-pity and depression, to which he himself admits to having succumbed on occasion. It is this honest appraisal of his own shortcomings in the "grit and determination" department that guarantees Making Miracles Happen an appreciative audience. Recommended for consumer health collections.
-?Kay Hogan, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Lib. of the Health Sciences
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

When you live with a brain tumor for 20 years, you learn a lot about medicine and about yourself. Smith (Naifeh is his "twenty-two-year partner and coauthor"; their Jackson Pollock [1990] won a Pulitzer Prize) learned how to keep searching until he found the right doctor and the right treatment. He also discovered the importance of the right attitude and of companionable support: be persistent, he says, and when seeing the doctor, have a companion to help in asking questions and remembering instructions. To find the best doctor for your problem, he says, ask other doctors, not their patients; search always for opinions and developing options, not a single right answer; and keep mutual respect between doctor and patient as a goal. Above all, Smith counsels, don't let a disease or an impairing condition turn you into someone different from what you have been. William Beatty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dell (July 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440508371
• ISBN-13: 978-0440508373
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,671,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making my OWN miracle happen, August 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Miracles Happen (Paperback)

Phenomenal and uplifting. That's how I would describe Smith's book. I purchased this book because I was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, at age 22. A craniotomy and a long recovery behind me, I'm still left with part of the tumor, seizures, and daily medication. Smith's book not only led me through what he was going through physically and emotionally, so that I did not feel so alone, but it showed the other side: hope. Through many personal stories of people who had diseases ranging from emphysema to AIDS, amyloidosis to stroke, Smith shows the strength and power that hope, positive thinking, and an attitude of "I'm not giving up!" has had on these fighters. This book made me see that no matter how bad I think things are for me, someone is going through worse, but with a better attitude! Everybody knows someone suffering from a chronic disease. I recommend this book for sufferers and their families. Not only helpful emotionally, it is helpful practically, in showing that getting that second, or third, or fourth opinion may make the difference between not only horrible aftereffects of a surgery, but life and death. Most of all, this book leaves its readers with the message of "Don't give up!" I know I won't.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Miracle, February 23, 2006

By 

Ed Ema "Larry" (Brooklyn NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Miracles Happen (Paperback)

I can relate to this great book!See,in 2001,Iwas suffering from an infection of the upper respiratory tract.Next thing I know,Iwake up.IN THE HOSPITAL.I had a seizure.No big deal.What happened next was:While having my seizure,I sustained a burst fracture of L1 vertebra.A spinal cord injury.My neurologist said I would never walk again.So of course,I was bummed.My mother,though,would hear none of it.She told me that these doctors are not God.They do not decide your fate.Only you do.Therefore,I decided to work my butt off in rehab.
Here it is 5 years later.Am I walking?Yes!Not only that I walk as well as I did before I got hurt.I work 2 jobs and generally lead a full life.
Mr.Smith's book says all the things I feel.The fight against self pity.The realization that your life will never be the same again.The hard work after.The nature of hospitals.The angels in one's life(my mother comes to mind as does the rest of my family and some good friends).
I feel like I was with him the whole time I read the book.I related to all of the stories he cites.I especially like his line that doctors are like weathermen.I say it all the time.They are NOT God...and I myself am a podiatrist.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incisive, August 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Miracles Happen (Hardcover)

Although the titles oozes with sap, Smith's book is full of original and interesting takes on the state of modern medicine as it concerns chronic and extremely life-threatening diseases. Especially relevant, I think, are his comments about being active in choosing doctors, doing your own research, and not simply accepting physicians' opinions as divine kernels of wisdom. Unfortunately, like many books in this genre, the writing tends toward the glib; patients' stories are seamlessly intercut with an enormous variety of material, from quotes from the relevant literature to interviews with leading research scientists. Good reading, though.