A Heart Afire
MIT Press (Verlag)
978-0-262-04852-1 (ISBN)
In A Heart Afire, Patricia Meisol renders a moving portrait of the indomitable pediatrician and global patient activist Helen Taussig (1898–1986), who famously gathered and publicized evidence linking thalidomide to birth defects, leading to US drug safety laws. Taussig also developed the Blalock-Taussig shunt (along with Alfred Blalock) for infants with congenital heart defects. Spanning Taussig’s childhood in Boston, her struggle with dyslexia, her progressive hearing loss, her research contributions, and the founding of her own fledgling children’s heart clinic, this book chronicles Taussig’s ambition, tenacity, and formidable work ethic. As Meisol shows, Taussig not only saved lives, but also set a bold precedent for other women doctors in the twentieth century, who were largely excluded from medicine.
Meticulously researched and intimately told, A Heart Afire is unique in its use of a fifty-year-long campaign by Taussig’s followers for a worthy memorial portrait and shows how views of women doctors have evolved. Meisol reveals Taussig as an authentic American hero, one who embodies the Emersonian ethic of developing oneself, following the processes of nature, and serving the public. A fiercely independent thinker, Taussig infused herself and her ideas into the medical culture, paving the way not only for other professional women but also for patients then and now to advocate for themselves. Offering an indispensable look at health care as a universal human right, A Heart Afire is a beacon and a blueprint for creating a more just and compassionate world of medicine.
Patricia Meisol is a narrative nonfiction writer and formal journalist who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize multiple times. She previously served in the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Preface xi
1 The Woman in White 1
2 Digging for Clams 5
3 Hearts in the Bathtub 21
4 Little Choice 29
5 Lessons from Children (1930-1933) 39
6 Breakdown and Breakthrough 55
7 Naked on the Beach 67
8 Go Where You Are Wanted 83
9 On the Precipice 95
10 Convincing Blalock 105
11 The Dawn of Modern Heart Surgery 121
12 Paper Fight 135
13 Patients Flock to Baltimore 147
14 Hovering 161
15 Map to the New World 171
16 A House of Her Own 177
17 A Chess Game 191
18 The End of Rheumatic Fever 205
19 On Her Own Again 211
20 Dousing the Fire 225
21 Gifts from the Heart 237
22 Can Suffering Be Prevented? 245
23 If They had Seen What She had Seen 259
24 Portrait of a Physician 281
Acknowledgments 303
Notes 307
Index 337
| Erscheinungsdatum | 22.11.2023 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 5 B&W ILLUS. |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 159 x 236 mm |
| Gewicht | 584 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte |
| Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik | |
| Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Innere Medizin ► Kardiologie / Angiologie | |
| Naturwissenschaften | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-262-04852-3 / 0262048523 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-262-04852-1 / 9780262048521 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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