Open Heart: The Radical Surgeons Who Revolutionized Medicine

Calling his book an "oral history," heart surgeon and author Cooper credits a handful of pioneers who have transformed heart surgery as we know it. From Robert Gross and Clarence Crafoord, founders of modern cardiovascular surgery, to the African-American operating room technician Vivien Thomas, a dropout who helped develop a lifesaving operation for oxygen-starved babies, the innovations chronicled here reveal the extraordinary spirits of more than two dozen exceptional men. Cooper, utilizing lengthy interviews with many of the doctors, recounts the breakthroughs with pride, awe, and just the right amount of "dish," such as when he tells of Floyd John Lewis, a "bohemian" doctor who performed the first open heart operation only to later walk away from medicine to become a writer and painter. C. Walton Lillehei, we're told, was a bold open heart surgeon but possessed such rotten financial skills that he nearly sank his career. In short, these pioneers are simultaneously average and exceptional and, in Cooper's careful hands, always accessible. (Oct.)