Every Second Counts: The Extraordinary Race to Transplant the First Human Heart - Softcover

McRae, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1471135349 ISBN 13: 9781471135347

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2014

Synopsis

The dramatic race to transplant the first human heart spanned two years, three continents and five cities against a backdrop of searing tension, scientific brilliance, ethical controversy, racial strife and emotional turmoil. It culminated in a terrifying moment in the early hours of 3 December 1967 when, in a cramped operating theatre in a Cape Town hospital, Professor Chris Barnard stared into an empty cavity from which he had just removed a heart. He knew that he had only minutes left to make history and save the life of a 55-year-old man by filling the gaping hole in his chest with a heart which had just been beating inside a 25-year-old woman.

Every Second Countsis the story of this gripping race to conquer the greatest of medical challenges. It also reveals the truth about the man at the centre of it all, whose turbulent life story was just as gripping. The kind of true story that would be dismissed as far-fetched if presented as fiction, it combines an utterly compelling portrait of cutting-edge science with raw human drama, and shows how the course of medicine itself was changed for ever.

About this title

Review:

'In this thrilling history of heart transplantation, Donald McRae shows how exciting medical history can be ... Few of the heart transplant pioneers were saints (Lillehei was guilty of tax evasion) but in this gripping book, McRae shows how their flaws also drove their remarkable advances' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 9/7 'In a profession that rewards front, Barnard's cool annexation of this famous first is still a stand-out. His subsequent antics - a couple of 19-year-old wives, a late obsession with anti-ageing treatments that saw him stripped of his membership of the American College of Surgeons - did little for his reputation. McRae has spoken to everyone, and recorded everything, for which he deserves credit. He doesn't judge; but then he doesn't need to. Whatever the backstory, Barnard will always be first' - SUNDAY TIMES 20/8 'It's a thrilling tale and it's told in detail here' Sunday Telegraph 19/8 'McRae paints not only a vivid portrait of the driven and ambitious South African [Dr Christiaan Barnard] but also adeptly explains the medical background to Barnard's triumph' --Sunday Times 2/9

About the Author:

Donald McRae is the award-winning author of eleven non-fiction books, which have featured sporting icons, legendary trial lawyers and heart surgeons. He has twice won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year, for Dark Trade and In Black & White. He is a three-time Interviewer of the Year winner and has also won Sports Feature Writer of the Year on three separate occasions for his work in the Guardian. He lives in Hertfordshire.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1471135349
• ISBN 13: 9781471135347
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368