Heart, A History

Heart, A History by Sandeep Jauhar. This is a history of cardiology, more of less. By a cardiologist. Sandeep describes the early view of the heart, and the early heart surgery, which really did not take place until the late 1800s. The development that had to happen to allow heart surgery to take place is pretty amazing, and the people who tended to make the discoveries and break throughs were basically pioneers to did things on their own. And by on their own it was surprising to me how many of these early heart doctors performed experiments on themselves, at time with fatal consequences. The development of bypass surgery, the pace maker, angioplasty if all covered. And it is really surprising how some of the discoveries were not made until the 1980s. Sandeep also provides his own personal stories in this book. His grandfather that died of a sudden heart attack, his own concerns about his own heart help. At times tough to read for some of the procedures, but all in all I found this a very educational book.