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As a young medical student, Dr. David Casarett was inspired by the story of a two-year-old girl named Michelle Funk. Michelle fell into a creek and was underwater for over an hour. When she was found she wasn't breathing, and her pupils were fixed and dilated. That drowning should have been fatal. But after three hours of persistent work, a team of doctors and nurses was able to bring her back. It was a miracle.
If Michelle could come back after three hours of being dead, what about twelve hours? Or twentyfour? What would it take to revive someone who had been frozen for one thousand years? And what does blurring the line between "life" and "death" mean for society?
In Shocked, Casarett chronicles his exploration of the cutting edge of resuscitation and reveals just how far science has come. He begins in the eighteenth century, when early attempts at resuscitation involved public displays of barrel rolling, horseback riding (sort of), and blowing smoke up the patient's various orifices. He then takes us inside a sophisticated cryonics facility in the Arizona desert, a darkroom full of hibernating lemurs in North Carolina, and a laboratory that puts mice into a state of suspended animation. The result is a spectacular tour of the bizarre world of doctors, engineers, animal biologists, and cryogenics enthusiasts trying to bring the recently dead back to life.
Fascinating, thought-provoking, and (believe it or not) funny, Shocked is perfect for those looking for a prequel—and a sequel—to Mary Roach's Stiff, or for anyone who likes to ponder the ultimate questions of life and death.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 1, 2014 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781469059839
- File size: 205910 KB
- Duration: 07:08:58
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 12, 2014
In this laid-back book about electroshocking people back to life, hospice doctor Casarett addresses the “financial ethical, and emotional” costs of life-saving resuscitation while asking, “What happens when we test the boundaries of life?” He wanders amiably through research on death, resuscitation technologies, hibernation, suspended animation, and hypothermia, lingering longer on the personalities—and stories—behind studies than on the studies themselves. Readers learn the relatively unsurprising news that cardiopulmonary resuscitation via electric shock is often effective, but no cure-all, sometimes leaving patients who have underlying disorders in bad shape. Similarly unsurprising is the news that humans have not yet learned how to hibernate for the winter, place ourselves in suspended animation for trips to space, or cryopreserve ourselves into another life. But Casarett does point out strides made in research and technology: scientists know how to freeze the body just right—via hypothermic circulatory arrest—so our brains can survive stopped-heart procedures, and are studying the chemical wizardry hibernating animals employ, in the not unrealistic expectation that humans will someday be able to follow suit. Casarett accessibly reveals the work being done that may enable us to sleep far more, and so travel far further—in both place and time—than we ever dreamed.
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