Heart

by Sandeep Jauhar

The heart lies at the centre of every facet of our existence. It’s so bound up with our deepest feelings that emotional trauma causes it to change shape.
Practising cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar beautifully weaves his own experiences with the defining discoveries of the past to tell the story of our most vital organ. He looks at some of the pioneers who risked their careers and their patients’ lives to better understand the heart. People like Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the world’s first documented heart surgery, and Wilson Greatbatch, who accidentally invented the pacemaker.
Amid gripping scenes from the operating theatre, Jauhar interweaves stories about the patients he’s treated with the moving tale of his family’s own history of heart problems, from his grandfather’s sudden death in India – an event that sparked his life-long obsession – to the ominous signs of how he himself might die.
He also confronts the limits of medical technology and argues that future progress will be determined more by how we choose to live rather than by any device we invent.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, Medical, History, Health, Audiobook

269 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Sandeep Jauhar has written several bestselling books, all published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

"My Father’s Brain," his most recent book, is a memoir of his relationship with his father as he succumbed to dementia. In the book, Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding his father’s disease. It was named by The New Yorker and Smithsonian magazine as one of the best books of 2023.

The book relates the complications that arise when family members must become caregivers. Though the conflicts are personal, they are also universal—conversations and conflicts that every family facing the mental erosion of an elder has. At the same time, the book explores everything from ancient conceptions of the mind to the most cutting-edge neurological―and bioethical―research. It delves into what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters, how memory gives meaning to our lives, even as it changes with time, how dementia complicates our understanding of what it means to have a self — and what all this means for patients, their families, and society at large.

Jauhar's first book, "Intern: A Doctor's Initiation," was an international bestseller and was optioned by NBC for a dramatic television series.

His second book, "Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician," was a New York Times bestseller and was named a New York Post Best Book of 2014.

"Heart: A History," his third book, was named a best book of 2018 by the Mail on Sunday, Science Friday, Zocalo Public Square, and the Los Angeles Public Library, and was the PBS NewsHour/New York Times book club pick for January 2019; it was also a finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize.

A practicing physician, Jauhar writes regularly for the opinion section of The New York Times. His TED Talk on the emotional heart was one of the ten most-watched TED Talks of 2019. To learn more about him and his work, visit his website at www.sandeepjauhar.com or follow him on social media.

Reviews

[India M. Clamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to what people think, physicians are good communicators, writers—many are astute journalists. Writing not only creates a record, but a way in which to see, understand and reflect on all that we do, observe and create. This includes the field of research and Sandeep Jauhar (who has become quite a prominent voice in medicine) regales us with “Heart: A History.” He weaves the tale expertly---as if he were creating a biography on this wonderful organ.

Jauhar is blatantly honest and he starts out with his own medical file and is transparent as glass. This book is personal and Sandeep connects with his audience---as only a specialist can. The journey starts off with a family member that was suffering from a heart condition and the description of the heart as an “untouchable” organ is truly poetic in this read.

"It looked like a reentrant spiral wave, the signature of the heart's death...my head was spinning."
---Sandeep Jauhar

The geography of the heart is sublime. Highly placed and, in the center, giving us a clear visual of its glory. Heart disease---still remains the leading cause of death and it’s important that we care for our beating miracle. Over 100 years of heart history is discussed. His time with cardiology giants (eccentric ones) like Shapiro and his description is comical “he had a canine appearance” or looked like a “bearded art carnie.”

Any physician should make a point of reading this book and it’s not necessarily geared for non-medical healthcare workers. Challenging read. Cardiology is fast paced and different compared to the diagnosticians of neurology. The heart is the center and greatness emanates from here, starting with this small spark and traveling throughout to harmonize the senses. Heart health comes from the many social connections, lifestyle and the exchanges we have with others. Buy and breathe deeply.

[Korcan Derinsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok iddialı olacak belki ama bence bir kurgu dışı kitap aşağı yukarı böyle olmalı. Bunun da iki sebebi var. İlki yazar iyi bir hikaye anlatıcısı. Kalbe dair anlatacaklarını kendi kişisel deneyimiyle birleştirerek öyle güzel bir giriş yapıyor ki bölümlere ister istemez merak edip bağlanıyorsunuz metne. Üstelik kendini olduğu gibi ortaya koymaktan çekinmeyen samimiyetini de hissediyorsunuz. İkinci olarak kişisel deneyimini biraz daha genele yayarak, konuyu kimi zaman tarihsel kimi zaman bilimsel bakış açısıyla anlatıyor. Bunu yaparken de dozu öyle güzel ayarlıyor ki asla boğmuyor. Genelde kurgu dışı kitaplarda özellikle bilimsel olanlarda sık düşülen bir hata bu bence. Oysa burada öyle değil; herhangi bir okuyucu bile hiç sıkılmadan kalp hakkında bir sürü fikir sahibi olabiliyor. Normalde sağlıkla ilgili çok sık okuma yapmasam da bu denge sayesinde kitap beni kendine bağlamayı bildi; hiç ilgimi kaybetmeden çok severek okudum. Konuya dair merakı olan herkese öneririm.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not for the faint of heart (har har) but was a great read for Science September from personal history with heart disease and training as a heart specialist to the history of how our understanding of the heart has developed, and with it treatments for various ailments.

I was interested to read that meditation often does as much as medication, and emerging research on the connection between anxiety/stress and the heart. I recently had AED training when I was CPR certified but had no idea that technology was (relatively) so new, younger than me.

On a level of greater detail, and don't read on if you're squeamish - Dr. Jauhar describes the first self-catheterization in agonizing detail and I threw the book down mid-sentence (and I'm the least squeamish person I know!) Experiments on animals that led to major heart discoveries are explained in great detail that might be difficult to read for a lot of animal lovers. And since the author was a doctor working in the makeshift morgues at ground zero for 9/11, you should be prepared for some pretty gruesome detail from that day, not heart related, or at least so it seems at first.

[Jennifer Blankfein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow my blog, Book Nation by Jen for all reviews and recommendations.
I devoured this book, thoroughly enjoyed the anecdotes and learned so much. According to author Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, “This book is about what the heart is, how it has been handled by medicine, and how we can most wisely live with – as well as by – our hearts in the future.”

Dr. Jauhar, a medical doctor, found himself out of breath, went to go get checked out and learned, along with other minor issues, his main artery feeding into his heart had a “30 to 50 percent obstruction near the opening and a 50 percent blockage in the mid portion.” His paternal grandfather died of a heart attack at 57 years old and his maternal grandfather at 83. His personal and familial experiences have guided his career and currently he is a cardiologist and the director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. “Understanding how and why my grandfather had died, and what implications his premature death had for my father, my siblings, and me, was fundamentally intertwined with my decision to train in cardiology.”

Filled with medical history and peppered with incredible stories of brave doctors who risked their own lives to study the heart, Heart: A History is incredibly informative and includes comprehensible descriptions of experiments and procedures that assisted in the understanding of how the heart works and how medicine has improved drastically so today we can fix certain problems.

Since 1910, cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer, claiming 18 million lives a year. “The scale of heart disease in the 1950s was like that of AIDS in the 1980s: a disease that dominated American medicine both clinically and politically. More than 600,000 Americans were dying of heart disease every year. In 1945, the budget for medical research at the National Institutes of Health was $180,000. Five years later, it was $46 million. ” Based on research, heart health in this country is declining and we are challenged with finding new solutions. Heart transplants are successful but we will never have enough hearts available for those in need, so other solutions to heart disease must be pursued.

Dr. Jauhar talks about how we associate the heart with our feelings and use the name of the organ to represent emotions, like wear your heart on your sleeve, your heart’s not in it, change of heart, bleeding heart. Even though these are just expressions, feelings and emotions often have a big effect on the heart and how it reacts to stresses and general overall function. “Over the years, I have learned that the proper care of my patients depends on trying to understand (or at least recognize) their emotional states, stresses, worries, and fears. There is no other way to practice heart medicine. For even if the heart is not the seat of the emotions, it is highly responsive to them. (The) “biological heart is extraordinarily sensitive to our emotional system—to the metaphorical heart”. “The autonomic nervous system has two divisions: the “sympathetic” system, which mediates the fight-or-flight reaction, using adrenaline to speed up the heart and increase blood pressure; and the “parasympathetic” system, which has the opposite effect, slowing respirations and heartbeat, lowering blood pressure, and promoting digestion. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves travel along blood vessels and terminate in nerve cells within the heart to help regulate the heart’s emotional reactions.”

Procedures and practices have advanced greatly over the past 75 years. In the late 1940s chest compressions were discovered to help raise blood pressure and now are common practice in resuscitations. In 1954 advanced open heart surgery was extremely rare (being done by only one doctor) using cross circulation (another healthy person as a donor). In 1977 the first balloon coronary angioplasty was performed in Switzerland. The doctor came to the United States in 1980 to continue his research. This led to clot busting drugs (which although still experimental and not approved by the FDA at the time, saved my father’s life as he suffered a heart attacking in the late 1980s). The automatic defibrillator was approved by the FDA in 1985. Even though there has been a drop in cardiovascular mortality, we still must continue on the path of research and discovery.

Heart: A History was easy to read, filled with great stories and research and provided an exciting overview of monumental strides made in twentieth century medicine. It also fed my curiosity and obsession with surgery that often gets fulfilled while watching medical shows on tv including Chicago Med, Untold Stories of the ER and the graphic Dr. Pimple Popper! I highly recommend this book to those who have a curiosity about science and the heart.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) There could hardly be an author better qualified to deliver this thorough history of the heart and the treatment of its problems. Sandeep Jauhar is the director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Medical Center. His family history – both grandfathers died of sudden cardiac events in India, one after being bitten by a snake – prompted an obsession with the heart, and he and his brother both became cardiologists. As the book opens, Jauhar was shocked to learn he had up to a 50% blockage of his own coronary vessels. Things had really gotten personal.

Cardiovascular disease has been the #1 killer in the West since 1910 and, thanks to steady smoking rates and a continuing rise in obesity and sedentary lifestyles, will still affect 60% of Americans. However, the key is that fewer people will now die of heart disease thanks to the developments of the last six decades in particular. These include the heart–lung machine, cardiac catheterization, heart transplantation, and artificial hearts.

Along the timeline, Jauhar peppers in bits of his own professional and academic experience, like experimenting on frogs during high school in California and meeting his first cadaver at medical school. My favorite chapter was the twelfth, “Vulnerable Heart,” which is about how trauma can cause heart arrhythmias; it opens with an account of the author’s days cataloguing body parts in a makeshift morgue as a 9/11 first responder. I also particularly liked his account of being called out of bed to perform an echocardiogram, which required catching a taxi at 3 a.m. and avoiding New York City’s rats.

Maybe I’ve read too much surgical history this year (The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris and Face to Face by Jim McCaul), though, because I found myself growing fairly impatient with the medical details in the long Part II, which centers on the heart as a machine, and was drawn more to the autobiographical material in the first and final sections. Perhaps I would prefer Jauhar’s first book, Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation.

In terms of readalikes, I’d mention Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Gene, in which the personal story also takes something of a backseat to the science, and Gavin Francis’s Shapeshifters, which exhibits a similar interest in the metaphors applied to the body. While I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as two other heart-themed memoirs I’ve read, The Sanctuary of Illness by Thomas Larson and Echoes of Heartsounds by Martha Weinman Lear, I still think it’s a strong contender for next year’s Wellcome Book Prize (the judging panel is announced tomorrow!).

Some favorite lines:

“it is increasingly clear that the biological heart is extraordinarily sensitive to our emotional system—to the metaphorical heart, if you will.”

“Who but the owner can say what lies inside a human heart?”

“As a heart-failure specialist, I’d experienced enough death to fill up a lifetime. At one time, it was difficult to witness the grief of loved ones. But my heart had been hardened, and this was no longer that time.”


Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Seher Andaç · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kalbe dokunan hekim saygınlığını yitirir. Ama bu eskidendi şimdi dokunmayan:)
Yazar Sandeep Jauhar, kalp doktoru. Kendisi için yaptırdığı kalp tomografi anjiosu ile kitaba giriş yapıp, varlığıyla hem yaşamı omuzlayıp hem de ölümü kucaklayan kalbin tarihini anlatmış. Uyumlu bölüm başlıklarıyla, geçmişle bugünümüzü bağlamış.
Hayvanlara o kadar çok şey borçluyuz ki minnet kelimesi inanın yetersiz kalır….
Beni oldukça etkileyen bir okuma oldu. Bölüm bölüm ve düşüne düşüne… İnsanın hayal gücü ve bunu eyleme dönüştürme azmi karşısında göz yaşı bile döktüm. Kalbi mekanik bir pompa olarak görürdüm; kitap beni ters köşeye attı.
Çevirmeni Yeşim Seber, oldukça iyi ve başarılı bir iş çıkarmış ki çok teşekkür ediyorum.
…
Bir kalp doktorunun ne kadar zor yetiştiğini çok iyi biliyorum. Bu yüzden ben okumamı, öldürülen kardiyolog doktor Ekrem Karakaya’nın anısına bırakıyorum.

[Janet Newport · Rating 4 out of 5]

As do many of us in later life, health challenges abound. Mine are cardiac in nature and I hoped for a better understanding of them through this book.

I did get a much better understanding of my personal issues as well as a fairly complete history of the treatment of heart related issues. I appreciated Dr. Jauhar's telling of his own personal experiences of heart disease and family history. He was almost philosophical explaining the effects of emotions and exterior trauma on the heart. Overall an easy to read book, except for the truly technical stuff... As far as I'm concerned, there's a lot of "magic" in the world.... electricity and the internet for example.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have worked my entire nursing career in a cardiac hospital so I was very interested in Sandeep Jahar’s book titled Heart: A History. Dr. Jahar is a cardiologist and a very good writer. The book gives an interesting history of how cardiac care has advanced throughout the years and it is written in layman’s terms so everyone can enjoy it. I especially liked his stories about his patients. I read his first book, Intern, many years ago so I was anxious to read his latest book and I was not disappointed.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader’s copy. This is my unbiased review.

[Ellen the Herbivore · Rating 2 out of 5]

He tried to personalize various heart conditions by connecting them to his family members who had died from them. But he didn't have enough time to characterize them strongly. So it was hard to feel a connection to them. He could have skipped that.

Also not a fan of the numerous animal studies, many of them quite cruel, that popped up out of nowhere in the book. I understand that we can't undo the cruelty now and that scientists learned some things from it. But so much of it was revolting and distracted from the book. I wonder why he didn't move that to some endnotes to keep the narrative flow smooth and allow people to avoid it. For this reason, I am reluctant to recommend the book to anyone and am not even sure what to do with my copy. I may throw it in the recycling instead of passing it along.

[Hayley Stenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because it was the pick for the Now Read This, New York Times/PBS book club. It was more technical than was I hoping for. I learned a lot, but honestly could have used some more explanation than was offered and some more stories and detail. I appreciate the work doctors have done, I understand and could see how valuable their work was/is, but animal testing is difficult for me to read about.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn about the heart and the many medical advances that we have today. At times this was hard to understand but the examples of personal stories of those with heart problems kept me engaged in reading. The author had family members who died abruptly from heart attacks and it motivated his interest in the medical field. People in the medical field would enjoy this book and understand it far better than I did.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

While interesting, this book is heavily biased towards biography and anecdotes, so if you're looking for a more academic medical overview, this won't satisfy that need.

[Ensiform · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a cardiologist, explores the history of the heart, from its symbolism to the newest artificial hearts. He begins with his own story, chronicling an odd shortness of breath that results in a diagnosis of arterial blockage. He discusses some of his family history, from the probable heart attack that killed his paternal grandfather after being bitten by a cobra, to his mother's death of a heart attack in her sleep after a battle with Parkinson's. The heart, he concludes, is the life-bringer and the sudden death-dealer. In between, he relates several case studies and the stories of prescient pioneers in medical history, from Galen to the first balloon angioplasty to stents to Christiaan Barnard and the artificial heart.

There are amazing facts throughout the book, such as how the heart begins beating in utero even before there is even any blood to flow, or how many miles of blood vessels there are in the human body, or how quickly one would die if the atrium of the heart is nicked. And it's also incredible to think that so many cardiac advances were made by mad geniuses who tested out their ideas on themselves, like Werner Forssmann, who pushed a wire through a vein in his arm until it touched his right atrium. But the core of this book, its heart if you will, is the underlying thesis that while we have made truly uncanny strides in medicine, from viewing the heart as literally untouchable to being able to sustain human life without a heart at all, the emotional heart and the physical organ are inextricably connected. While some of the book's subjects say that the heart is a pump and their work is "just plumbing," Jauhar shows that to be dismissive and disingenuous. Studies have shown that all other factors being equal, a connected social life and a stress-free environment keep the heart going. For this dire warning alone, this fascinating history is well worth reading.

[Carin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's odd that I am squeamish and yet like medical books. I nearly failed high school biology (and to be honest, I should have failed it. I only passed by cheating. Sorry, Mom.) and yet decades later, I wonder about those organs I tried not to look at too closely in my little frog.

I read Dr. Jauhar's first medical memoir, Interned, years ago. (Unfortunately, I missed his second memoir. This is his third.) Like in Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, in this one, Dr. Jauhar is not just the medical expert, but he also becomes a patient in his own arena. He is a cardiologist, and he got his brother (also a cardiologist) to run some tests and found his cardiac arteries were mostly blocked, while he was still on the young side of middle age. His grandfather died of a sudden heart attack, and many members of his family have heart problems.

But it is not just a memoir. It is about how the heart itself functions, including the ludicrous idea still circulating today that it's where "love" is (the first heart transplant patient's wife asked the doctors if he would still love her after the surgery.) It is about the history of the understand of the heart, and the history of cardiology. Even years after we were exploring the brain, the heart was still considered off limits to doctors. And as Dr. Jauhar remembers his training in cardiology and how he learned important facets of his field, he elucidates this vital organ in all its mystery and simplicity.

If you have any interest in the medical field at all, even tangential like mine, this is an excellent book.

[Ruthanne Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five educated stars for this fascinating book. It’s educational, also a personal memoir of the life of a brilliantly-trained young cardiac surgeon, along with case studies of his most interesting patients and bits and pieces of his philosophy about such arguable subjects of”humans actually dying of grief and a broken heart.”
As for the historical part, he goes back into 11th century medicine and explains how the body’s circulation was a much-errored mystery and how it was finally solved. All this was so fascinating to me because we had so much of the practical to learn in nursing school that there wasn’t time to study ancient medical history or Hippocrates or Galen.
One caution if you listen to the audio version like I did, narrated by the author who speaks distinctly but quite slowly. You might want to turn your device speed up a bit.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book that is a quick read and interesting. That being said, I felt like I was in a lecture hall in college.

[Aditi Bhatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not aim to read this book actually. It was a very random pick from a book fair in my city that sold books based on weight. I got it due to its cover design which looked kinda cool and minimalistic. Initially, I thought it would be based on heart as a metaphor but on reading it, I understood that it talks of heart as a machine.

The author who happens to be a cardiologist has talked of numerous procedures and heart-based surgeries, their need, origin and development. I am no biology student but could easily grasp even the most complex contents due to the simple language and easy explanation provided in the read. If you have even a little interest in human body and especially the heart, this read is for you! It's detailed yet crisp, complex yet easy, and long yet short!

[Tullyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly addictive read, with the author masterfully weaving the scientific with the anecdotal.

[Goszaczyta · Rating 4 out of 5]

❤️ ”𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓬𝓮” 𝓢𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓙𝓪𝓾𝓱𝓪𝓻❤️

•• Wciągająca opowieść ukazująca piękno, tajemnicę i cud ludzkiego serca. ••

▪️𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗭𝗝𝗔 ▪️

Dokumenty medyczne i seriale o lekarzach bardzo lubię oglądać. Z pozoru rozrywkowe seriale mogą człowieka wiele nauczyć i przygotować na pewne sytuacje w życiu. Medycyna od zawsze była dla człowieka jedną wielką zagadką, a co za tym szło niesamowicie nas fascynowała. Pewnie wielu z nas za dzieciaka marzyło o tym, by zostać lekarzem czy pielęgniarką. A dzięki książkę „Serce” autorstwa Sandeep Jauhar możemy bliżej poznać historię kardiologii i różne ciekawe aspekty związane z badaniami i zalecaniami dotyczącymi dbania o nasz najważniejszy organ. 🫀

Ta książka to nie jest zwykły reportaż, który ilością informacji może czytelnika znużyć. Autor postarał się skonstruować ją w taki sposób, by od samego początku zachęcić czytelnika do eksplorowania tego fascynującego tematu. Dzięki tej książce można się dowiedzieć jak powstały aparatury podtrzymujące życie, które umożliwiały operacje na otwartym sercu, jak rozwijał się postęp technologiczny leczenia chorób serca. Autor z lekkością przedstawia nam ten fascynujący świat, obnażając przed nami swoje osobiste przeżycia, co nadaje książce autentyczności.

„Serce” to niesamowita opowieść o lekarzach i pacjentach, którzy na przestrzeni lat ryzykowali swoje zdrowie, a nawet życie, by dokonać przełomowych odkryć. Nie od dziś wiemy, że serce to najważniejszy organ w organizmie człowieka, bowiem dostarcza on niezbędnych składników innym narządom, by prawidłowo funkcjonowały, a z drugiej strony to tak kruchy i podatny na choroby organ, że dbanie o niego powinno być naszym priorytetem.

Zachęcam was do sięgnięcia po tę książkę! 🫀 Myślę, że każdy kto zdecyduje się po nią sięgnąć będzie głodny wiedzy i dzięki tej lekturze spokojnie zaspokoicie tę chęć zdobycia wiedzy. Autor przedstawi wam historię serca, opowie o pierwszych operacjach, które nie zawsze były zgodne z wytycznymi, czy przedstawi wam narządy ratujące ludzkie życie. Nie pozostaje mi nic innego, jak tylko zachęcić was do sięgnięcia po tę książkę! 🫀 Naprawdę warto! ❤️

[Siltsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable book! It’s the history of treating the heart and heart related issues, told through the stories of the trail blazing doctors, medical personnel and engineers who wanted to conquer the mysteries of the life giving organ, sometimes even using their own hearts and bodies as experiments. The book is so well written that even the most complicated issues are easy to understand and I feel that I now have a completely new perspective to heart health. I now intend to start taking a lot better care of my own heart than I have before. Other than great knowlege and storytelling, the book simply has a lot of heart (ha ha). Dr. Jauhar has experience as a cardiologist of course but he also has personal history with the heart. His grandfather and mother died of heartattacks and at the beginning of the book he himself finds out that he has some trouble with his coronary arteries. He also knows that the heart is not hurt by just physical changes but emotional ones, too. Did you know that when you have your metaphorical heart broken it actually effects the heart in your chest as well? Or that stress is detrimental to your heart health? Dr. Jauhar talks about these issues and of the reasons why the heart has a lot of symbolism attached to it. And how the symbolism has at times even been a hindrance to examining the heart. All in all a great and informative book I’d recommend to anyone interested in the history of science, though please note that some of the descriptions of different medical experiments were kind of gruesome.

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jauhar seems so down-to-earth for a man with such an impressive career. Not only is he a cardiologist, an extremely difficult and demanding job on its own, but he also writes for the New York Times, directs a major program at a medical center, and even led a team that was responsible for cataloguing remains following 9/11. I would expect a man like that to be completely out of touch with reality and write in a way that is impossible to digest, but I was pleasantly surprised. He made the subject deeply fascinating and easy to understand. His prose is beautiful, approachable, and (no pun intended) visceral. I love how he shared his family’s history with heart disease and openly discussed his own heart problems. Parts of the book really felt conversational, like talking to an old friend who also just happens to be a very skilled and knowledgeable doctor. Non-fiction is typically not my go-to, but this microhistory was a treat and was written with so much heart (pun intended that time).

[Las Bookowy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muszę przyznać, że ogromnie interesuje mnie świat medycyny i odkrycia, jakich dokonali lekarze na przestrzeni lat — głównie dlatego, że kilkanaście lat temu zostałam zmuszona do częstszych wizyt w gabinetach lekarskich. Dlatego gdy książka trafiła w moje ręce, byłam ogromnie podekscytowana. Historia najważniejszego organu wciągnęła mnie od pierwszych stron, a szczególnie poruszył mnie jeden z początkowych rozdziałów, ukazujący, że naprawdę można umrzeć z powodu złamanego serca.

Autor prowadzi nas przez dzieje serca, wplatając w opowieść także własne historie, których doświadczył w trakcie swojej długoletniej kariery. Książka zawiera sporo specjalistycznego nazewnictwa, więc wielokrotnie musiałam sięgać po dodatkowe źródła, by lepiej zrozumieć poruszane zagadnienia. Mimo to całość napisana jest przystępnym i wciągającym stylem. Autor porusza m.in. temat odkrycia krwiobiegu, pierwszej operacji na otwartym sercu oraz wynalezienia rozrusznika — a to tylko część zagadnień, które opisuje z dużą dokładnością.

Książka w pełni zaspokoiła moją ciekawość i sprawiła mi wiele przyjemności. Jeśli interesuje Was historia najważniejszego organu w naszym ciele, gorąco polecam tę pozycję!

[Emily Wirt · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to its cover, this was a fascinating history of what we’ve learned about the heart and how to treat its ailments in the last hundred years or so. Well written, with so many patient stories and personal anecdotes throughout that brought the book to life. Also so important, his writing is very accessible and easy to follow - no thrown around mile-long medical terms.

I definitely recommend to anyone curious about that thing inside your chest!

[Amina (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautiful read, I like it when doctor tell us stories from their own experiences. If you want to get to know one of the most beautiful and strong organs inside you, go ahead and pick up this book!

[smak_slow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka Sandeepa Jauhara to niezwykłe połączenie medycyny, historii i osobistych przeżyć, tworzące fascynującą opowieść o jednym z najważniejszych narządów ludzkiego ciała. Dla mnie ta lektura miała szczególne znaczenie — serce pochłania moje myśli już od roku. Przeszłam poważną chorobę, która uświadomiła mi, jak kruchy, a jednocześnie zdumiewająco silny potrafi być ten organ.

Jauhar, jako kardiolog, prowadzi nas przez wieki odkryć, porażek i przełomów w rozumieniu serca — od czasów, gdy uważano je za siedzibę duszy, po współczesne osiągnięcia medycyny i przeszczepy. Autor nie tylko przystępnie tłumaczy złożone zagadnienia, ale także dzieli się własnymi doświadczeniami – zarówno jako lekarz, jak i pacjent z problemami kardiologicznymi.

To książka, która nie tylko edukuje, ale i głęboko porusza. Dzięki niej poczułam, że nie jestem sama w swoim lęku i fascynacji tym niewielkim narządem. To opowieść o sercu w dosłownym i przenośnym znaczeniu — o jego biologii, ale też emocjonalnym i symbolicznym wymiarze. Dla każdego, kto zmagał się z chorobą, może stać się ważnym towarzyszem i źródłem nadziei.

[Tiina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tõeliselt hea lõik meditsiiniajaloost. Hästi ja põnevalt kirjutatud, tõlge väga ladus. Soovitan!
Ingliskeelne audioraamat on ka hea.

[Isabel Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book! I did wish Jauhar had touched more on innovation today for the future of cardiology, but I can see why he focused more on the individual at the end of the book.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

x Pace maker shock feels like a donkey kick to the chest
x you can cut the sympathetic nerves that mediate the hearts response to emotional stress
x mechanical temporary replacement hearts exist - they flow continuously instead of pump. Which is detrimental long term in strange ways because it’s not how we evolved !!
x reentrant spiral wave = the signature of a hearts death

[Leah Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly beautiful history of the complexities of the heart, both from a medical standpoint and from an emotional one. I loved every minute of this beautiful book!

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite exploration of the heart itself, the history of treatments developed to heal it, and anecdotes that add (not detract) from the narrative. I'm definitely not a doctor, but this book struck a perfect chord of science and story.