The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center (Hardcover)

by Charles Morris (Author)
Key Phrases: cardiothoracic division, bypass cannulae, propensity scoring, New York, The Measurement Problem, The Future of Heart Surgery (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
To get a nuts-and-bolts understanding of heart surgeons—from the decisions they make in the operating room to the impact of colleagues, patients and pharmaceutical companies on their jobs—Morris (The Tycoons) embedded himself for six months in the elite cardiac surgery center at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York City. Unlike some noncardiac surgeries where music blares in the operating room, an aortic valve replacement for a retired pharmacy executive, says Morris, is a solemn affair, the calm briefly interrupted only when the patient fibrillates, his heart muscle fibers fluttering irregularly. The author finds it exhilarating to watch as a surgeon basically built... a new heart for a five-day-old baby with a major heart malformation. But even technical marvels can't save a desperately ill four-year-old girl after a heart transplant. The reserved Craig Smith, the unit's head, who gained national fame when he performed a quadruple bypass on former President Clinton, impresses readers with his skill and deep concern for his patients. From detailing the workings of the heart's chambers and valves to the bald economics of cardiac surgery—including Smith's income ($1.5 million in 2004), the hospital's billing and collection procedures and forecasts on universal health insurance—Morris masterfully breaks down complex jargon, procedures and policies for a lay audience. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
`mesmerizing tales....insighful and filled with verve. There is an electrifying late-night `harvest run' to secure a donor's heart, the day-to-day frenzy of a heart surgeon in training, and the poignant death of a child from a failed heart transplant.' -- Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2007

An astute book of enormous importance…written by an outsider so keenly observant, of such understanding and perceptiveness. -- Sherwin Nuland, Clinical Professor of Surgery at Yale, author of The Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being

An insightful, captivating story of the inner workings of a high tech medical Mecca. -- Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., author of You: The Owner's Manual

By: Pauline W. Chen

The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center is an ambitious account of the complicated interplay among health care economics, policy and those individuals whose professional lives drive the medical system. Morris fully immerses himself, and the reader, in the complexities of health care; what emerge are riveting and clarifying snapshots of the often unfathomable behemoth we call our health care system...What ultimately brings clarity to this book--and hope for health care reform--are the stories Morris delivers along the way. There is the beleaguered nurse struggling in the middle of the night to help two surgical teams perform an organ procurement, the world-renowned cardiologist whose belief in transparency includes recounting harrowing clinical moments to some 500 colleagues, and the young surgeon, a decade after medical school, working day and night and for hours at a time standing hunched over an operating table "with no breaks for food, water or bathroom" and a salary less than that of "a kid fresh out of law school." Medicine is full of such examples, Morris writes, people "working very hard under great pressure--because it was the right thing to do." -- New York Times Book Review: 10/29/07. Editor's Choice selection 11/04/07

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1 edition (October 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393065626
• ISBN-13: 978-0393065626
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #566,489 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Surgeons is a fascinating read!, November 9, 2007

By	Mellanie True Hills (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Surgeons is an intriguing glimpse into the lives and work of the heart surgeons at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, one of the world's top cardiac surgery centers.

Author Charles Morris provides an intimate look at the work of these virtuosos who hold lives in their hands every day. We get to know such artisans as Craig Smith, head of cardiothoracic surgery, who is well-known for doing the quadruple bypass on former President Bill Clinton; Eric Rose, a cardiothoracic surgeon and chairman of the Department of Surgery; Mehmet Oz, senior adult cardiac surgeon, well-known author of three New York Times best-sellers, and regular contributor on Oprah; and many others, whose names will be better known as a result of this book.

From his unparalleled access to attend surgeries and meetings, Morris gives us an incredibly insightful view into how these surgeons think. It's a real-world, insider's look at the people, problems, and politics in a major hospital. As an example, he explores the politics between the surgeons and the interventional cardiologists, and talks about how their disciplines are converging.

The book tackles a variety of topics, from how the heart works and the history of heart surgery to health care policy and directions for high tech medicine. It even explores the innovative new business models pursued by Columbia-Presbyterian. An intriguing bit of trivia that Morris reveals is that Thomas J. Watson, former chairman of IBM, made a personal project of financing and developing the heart-lung bypass machine, which is still used today in many open-heart surgeries.

Morris excels at sharing the stories of surgeries and the patients benefiting from them. We get an intimate look at patients that made it and those that didn't. We experience the heart-rending story of four-year old Erika Maynard and her family, a story sure to tear at your heart strings. We get to go with him on a heart transplant run to secure a heart, and then see it transplanted. Morris' writing is so visual, and the stories so real and vivid, that you actually see and feel them.

The Surgeons is a fascinating read!

Mellanie True Hills
American Foundation for Women's Health and www.StopAfib.org
Author, A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My heart be still ... AND healthy!!!!, December 23, 2007

By	Kevin Quinley "GeezerJock" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Author Charles Morris offers insightful profiles of top cardiac surgeons at a New York area medical center. One gets a sense of the incredible training and sacrifice that goes into being one of these medical virtuosos, who literally hold the lives of patients in their skilled hands.

Morris also provides an interesting discussion of health care economics, making predictions on how America may attempt to address the healthcare crisis what with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation.

Morris' admiration for the surgeons profiled often leaves him awestruck, with a tendency to deify these practitioners. Rolled out as the proverbial whipping boys are the Bad Guys of Big Pharma and Medical Device Companies. The critique tends to obscure the fact that doctors are somewhat willing participants in the promotional schemes used by such firms, but they escape much of the venom that Morris reserves for health care businesses.

"The Surgeons" is an enlightening and thought-provoking book on specialists that you hope you'll never have to see. Take care of your ticker!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Surgeons" from a patient's perspective , February 1, 2008

By	K. Davey "Ken Davey" (Hopewell, Jct., New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With amazing detail, "The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center" provides a view of many behind-the-scene challenges of modern cardiac surgery. I spent four days as a patient in the cardiac unit at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital while author Charles Morris shadowed surgeons "unrestricted" in the same unit for an entire year.

It is quite fascinating to read what doctors are thinking, feeling and doing while life is literally in their hands. Cardiac surgery is one of the few procedures in which, at every moment, "the patient is at risk of sudden death." As a result of many long years of medical training and incredible sacrifice, cardiothoracic surgeons provide their patients the gift we all crave, longevity and quality of life.

Charles Morris writes a fascinating description of what happens once a heart patient is anesthetized on the operating table. Prep work takes about an hour. The patient is "shaved, and painted almost head to toe with bright red antiseptic; various monitoring leads and hookups are affixed around the body, breathing and imaging tubes pushed down the throat, a flow monitoring catheter is threaded through the jugular vein" into the heart, and a urinary catheter into the bladder. The patient is wrapped with yards and yards of sterile tape and gauze and "eyes are taped shut."

When Columbia-Presbyterian heart surgeon Craig Smith, MD recently opened my chest, the mitral and aortic valves were beyond repair with healed endocarditis and a worn out aortic root. In 8.5 hours of surgery, Dr. Smith skillfully removed scar tissue and replaced both valves with bovine (cow) tissue and the aorta with a 28mm graft.

Although many of the more difficult cases are sent to Columbia-Presbyterian, heart valve surgery is considered "relatively routine." Craig Smith performs about 350 heart operations a year and heads up the largest heart transplant center in the country.

Congratulations to Charles Morris for his eloquence, as he provides heart patients and the public a greater understanding and cardiothoracic surgeons and the medical community a voice.