When Death Becomes Life

October 22, 2018
Mezrich, a University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health surgery professor, delivers an attention-grabbing and candid look at human organ transplantation. Often pulse-quickening, sometimes stomach-churning, and always immersive, Mezrich’s descriptions of the complicated, time-sensitive process of transferring livers, kidneys, and other healthy organs from deceased donors to recipients use examples from his own work as a transplant surgeon. Numerous, well-integrated asides on the evolving trial-and-error of organ transplant, from the early days in the late 19th century through advances made during WWII and after, complement his personal stories. In addition to being up-front about the fear of making a mistake during surgery—“It needs to be perfect. Otherwise the patient will pay a huge price, the donor won’t have given the gift of life, and you will be woken in the middle of the night by a shrill pager”—Mezrich describes the emotional attachment that can form between donor families and donor recipients. He notes how one patient, having received a heart from a young woman killed in a car accident, celebrates her donor’s birthday each year, “almost as if it were her own.” Success through perseverance is this book’s main theme, and Mezrich does a commendable job sharing his death-to-life experiences in a vital field.

Starred review from December 1, 2018

Transplant surgeon Mezrich (surgery, Univ. of Wisconsin Sch. of Medicine & Public Health) can replace a person's kidney; he can also write a well-paced book taking readers through complicated medical procedures with real-life examples filled with suspense. A glimpse into this complicated field is given through a history of organ transplantation starting with skin grafts and ending with the liver. The author presents a history of a procedure, the invention of breakthrough treatments such as dialysis, and the development of medications to prevent rejection. Woven into this history are personal accounts of success, failure, perfect procedures, and frightening complications. Mezrich relieves the tension with humor, balancing clinical perspective with heart-rending stories, and through it all maintains enthusiasm and wonder at the process. This is not just a tale of doctors; patient and donor stories are also respectfully told. Ethical questions are further considered, such as who should be at the top of the organ recipient list? VERDICT A great read for fans of narrative nonfiction, medicine, and real-life suspense stories.--Susanne Caro, North Dakota State Univ., Fargo

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2018
An outstanding memoir by a transplant surgeon who combines an autobiography and operating room dramatics with an equally engrossing history of his profession.In his first book, Mezrich (Surgery/Univ. of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health) avoids standard-issue jokes about motorcyclists who don't wear helmets but reminds readers that, except for the occasional live donor, a tragedy usually precedes every transplant. "Someone who had just died had saved the life of someone he had never met," he writes, "and we were the ones that made it happen." The author touches all bases with a masterly hand. He trained as a surgery resident, undergoing the usual mixture of servitude and inspiration. He graduated to a fellowship, during which skill and satisfaction increased with no decrease in the workload. Readers will share the author's exhilaration at the end of a procedure when, for example, the clamps are released, blood flow turns a new kidney pink, and urine flows out before his eyes. At intervals, the author digresses, offering a cogent history of transplants. These sections will enthrall most readers save animal rights proponents, who will recoil at the myriad of animals sacrificed along the way. However, plenty of human recipients also died miserably, except for the rare identical twin, in the decades before doctors realized that they required immunosuppression. About half died during the 1960s and '70s, when surgeons used early versions of anti-rejection drugs. After the first effective immunosuppressant, cyclosporine, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1983, success rates exceeded 90 percent. As a result, transplanting many organs has become routine. Still, recent doctor-authors give equal time to failures, so Mezrich recounts plenty of painful experiences.Medical memoirs have become a significant genre over the past two decades, and this one ranks near the top, in a class that includes arguably the best, Henry Marsh's Do No Harm (2015).

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2019
Skillfully stitching medical memoir to medical history, transplant surgeon Mezrich shares stories of patients and donors, provides profiles of pioneers in the field of organ transplantation, and serves up some self-examination. He's in awe of the anatomic beauty and physiologic brilliance of the organs that are transplanted?kidney, liver, heart, lung, and pancreas. He describes what a transplant operation looks like from the surgeon's vantage, marveling every time an implanted kidney pinks up and begins emitting urine or a donated liver starts secreting bile. Mezrich explains the procurement (formerly called harvesting) of organs primarily from recently deceased people but also from healthy living donors. A breakthrough in the survival of transplant patients was the use of immunosuppressant medications (in particular, cyclosporine, FDA-approved in 1983) to prevent rejection of the organ. Mezrich reflects on the toll of waiting for an available organ on patients as well as the emotional burden of his job, complex ethical questions about who receives transplants, and who makes those life-or-death decisions. Organ donors are the real heroes in Mezrich's enlightening transplantation chronicle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)