How Death Becomes Life by Joshua Mezrich is an insightful look at the history of transplantation and the evolution of modern practices. The book covers many milestones in history as well as touching on Mezrich's own experiences as a surgeon.
The first two thirds of the book mainly looked at history and progress with a few of Mezrich's own personal stories sprinkled in. This was very interesting and informative, however I was sometimes bogged down by some of the medical terminology and this hindered my understanding of some things. The author would flit between history and modern personal examples and while this was interesting and mostly effective, I felt the flow of the the book a little uneven at times because of this.
The last third really took off, and this is where the novel really shined. Mezrich wrote about the roles of the donor and recipient, and presented real life cases that packed an emotional punch. He dedicated chapters to some interesting ethical questions, for example whether an alcoholic deserves a liver transplant over someone who's liver has stopped working through no fault of their own. As a transplant surgeon he got to know his patients very well, and this is clear in the compassionate and detailed way he wrote about every one of them featured.
This book gave me a much deeper understanding and appreciation of transplant surgery - a topic I knew about only in the very simplest of terms. It is an insightful, thought provoking book that not only educates, but reminds us of the heroism of patients on both sides, especially of the donors living and dead who give a piece of themselves so someone else can live.
The first two thirds of the book mainly looked at history and progress with a few of Mezrich's own personal stories sprinkled in. This was very interesting and informative, however I was sometimes bogged down by some of the medical terminology and this hindered my understanding of some things. The author would flit between history and modern personal examples and while this was interesting and mostly effective, I felt the flow of the the book a little uneven at times because of this.
The last third really took off, and this is where the novel really shined. Mezrich wrote about the roles of the donor and recipient, and presented real life cases that packed an emotional punch. He dedicated chapters to some interesting ethical questions, for example whether an alcoholic deserves a liver transplant over someone who's liver has stopped working through no fault of their own. As a transplant surgeon he got to know his patients very well, and this is clear in the compassionate and detailed way he wrote about every one of them featured.
This book gave me a much deeper understanding and appreciation of transplant surgery - a topic I knew about only in the very simplest of terms. It is an insightful, thought provoking book that not only educates, but reminds us of the heroism of patients on both sides, especially of the donors living and dead who give a piece of themselves so someone else can live.