Taking Heart: The Inspiring Medical and Personal History of a Heart Tranplant Operation by a Texas Writer Who Lived Through It

by A.C. Greene

Offers a firsthand account of the author's heart transplant operation, describing his feelings about the procedure and discussing recent medical innovations, the history of transplant surgery, and the politics of finding organ donors

222 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1990

About the author

A.C. Greene (Alvin Carl Greene, Jr.) was an American writer — important in Texas literary matters as a memoirist, fiction writer, historian, poet, and influential book critic in Dallas. As a newspaper journalist, he had been a book critic and editor of the Editorial Page for the Dallas Times Herald when JKF was assassinated, which galvanized his role at the paper to help untangle and lift a demoralized city in search of its soul. Leaving full-time journalism in 1968, Greene went on to become a prolific author of books, notably on Texas lore and history. His notoriety led to stints in radio and TV as talk-show host. By the 1980s, his commentaries were being published by major media across the country. He had become a sought-after source for Texas history, antidotes, cultural perspective, facts, humor, books, and politics. When the 1984 Republican National Convention was held in Dallas, Greene granted sixty-three interviews about Texas topics to major media journalists. Greene's 1990 book, Taking Heart — which examines the experiences of the first patient in a new heart transplant center (himself) — made the New York Times Editors Choice list.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very introspective look at being the first person to receive a heart transplant at a new transplant program in Texas. I found the author to be very comprehensive when it came to describing the background of why he needed a heart transplant, why less dramatic procedures used on other heart patients wouldn't work for him, and the brief history of heart transplantation prior to his operation.
What I found to be lacking was in the immediate period before, during, and after the surgery. One moment he's describing his work at a university and the next page he's getting a new heart. Then he's returning to life as normal, albeit with some dietary modifications.
Despite the book being dated, I found the history part in particular to be interesting, where he describes certain drugs as the latest and greatest and others to have horrible side effects that some day he hoped that something better would be developed, and drugs in both categories are still being used in transplant today.
Not so much a critique of this book, but what I found interesting in researching A.C. Greene once I completed the book was that I found no mention of his heart transplant in his biography, as if was nothing serious and just a normal event in his life. Therefore, this story pretty much ends with the book, though reading the web biographies will fill in some of his story post-transplant.