Litercurious Book Review
IN MEMORIAM OF
BRUCE TUCKER
DECLARED DEAD ON SATURDAY MAY 25, 1968 AT 3:33 PM
Still waiting for an apology that will never come.
R.I.P.
| Title | The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South |
| Author | Chip Jones |
| Publisher | Gallery/Jeter Publishing (August 18, 2020) |
| Format | Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook, Audio CD |
| Pages | 400 |
| Language: | English |
| ISBN 10/13 | 1982107529 / 978-1982107529 |
Imagine ‘House’ meets ‘A Few Good Men.’
AUTHOR
Chip Jones is a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist. You can learn more about this author here or visit his Facebook page here.
WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?
The Organ Thieves has broad appeal. Everyone from medical students to senior professors and laymen alike will enjoy this work. Students of history, ethics, research fellows or anyone who wants to know more about the early history of heart transplants in the United States will find this book invaluable.
SYNOPSIS
The Organ Thieves is a compassionate retelling of events that introduced a new and highly anticipated advance in medical science. It’s a real-life drama of a radical new cutting-edge medical procedure, involving esteemed surgeons and a seemingly inebriated, impecunious victim of an accident. The apparent theft of the heart and two kidneys from a decent hardworking man, eventually resulting in a $1,000,000 lawsuit.
The subsequent trial spans the whole gamut of questions relating to ethics, motivations, incompetence and a questionable disregard for state law and patients care. The trial covered poor medical administrative practices, prejudice and ethical questions that still plague modern medical ethicists. All this set against the contextual history of medical research set in the segregated South. From the dark days of slavery and the Devil’s Half Acre, to the ‘demonstrators’ and the ‘resurrection-men’ of pre 1884, through to the mid 1990s.
CONCLUSION
The Organ Thieves is well-paced throughout, resplendent with historic detail, clear and concise prose that make for a work that is difficult to put down. I read the last 4 hours in one sitting and I was more enthusiastic in my praise and admiration with each passing chapter.
My only criticism is, I felt at times, there was an understandable bias exhibited by the author. Rather than simply presenting the facts, thus leaving the reader to make their own independent assessment, I sensed he was assessing the historic interactions by todays values.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Chip Jones, NetGalley, and Gallery/Jeter Publishing for affording me the opportunity to review The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South.