Scan barcode
A review by balletbookworm
The Man Who Touched His Own Heart: True Tales of Science, Surgery, and Mystery by Rob Dunn
3.0
More like a 3.5 star. I like the idea and concept, but a few of the arguments were a bit convoluted (ex: he discusses a 2012 meta-analysis looking at medication+angio/stent for atherosclerosis vs medication alone then jumps back about 30 years by referencing studies in the 80s/90s that contradicted the meta-analysis's findings...huh? I do research and those paragraphs didn't make as much sense). I also felt like bits were missing from the story such as the development of heart valve replacements/repair and the extension of the heart-lung machine to ECMO (extracorporeal membranous oxygenation - allows the lungs to rest and heal while the heart pumps, which could have been briefly introduced/explained) and the development of the complex operations to save children born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
One thing that I think would have been very good for the book, considering this is written for a lay audience, is an actual description - with pictures - of the normal working anatomy of the heart. Because there's a point at which Dunn describes in writing the four congenital malformations that comprise Tetralogy of Fallot and even I found it really hard to visual what he was talking about and I know what they are.
(Caveat: if you are an animal lover, this book may not be for you. The history of medical discovery is paved with the use of laboratory animals for research, often in non-ethical ways, none more so than the treatment of cardiac ailments.)
One thing that I think would have been very good for the book, considering this is written for a lay audience, is an actual description - with pictures - of the normal working anatomy of the heart. Because there's a point at which Dunn describes in writing the four congenital malformations that comprise Tetralogy of Fallot and even I found it really hard to visual what he was talking about and I know what they are.
(Caveat: if you are an animal lover, this book may not be for you. The history of medical discovery is paved with the use of laboratory animals for research, often in non-ethical ways, none more so than the treatment of cardiac ailments.)