An ATC Book Review of Sanjay Gupta's "Cheating Death" and a Giveaway!

Life extended through hypothermia, stasis induced through hydrogen sulfide, stories that one might expect to see in a science fiction television show are all new revelations in science that doctors are using to try and blur the line between life and death. In Sanjay Gupta’s new book Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that Are Saving Lives Against All Odds Gupta explores these new techniques in life saving and also looks into new advances in procedures that today we take for granted. With all these encouraging breakthroughs Gupta also looks at the science behind them and the obstacles they face. While studies show hope and promise in new ways of preserving life long enough for doctors to have the crucial time needed to perform life saving surgeries hospitals are reluctant to implement changes and federal approval is difficult to come by.

With amazing real life stories of people who have defied the odds and accounts from doctors who treated them, Gupta shows that the line between life and death isn’t always clear. He encourages us to not think of death as we’ve been taught in the movies, cut and dry, dead or alive, but rather to see death as a process that could possibly be interrupted, and in some cases, reversed. Through riveting real life accounts of people who have cheated death Gupta shows real life examples of people who have been able to do just that.

The book not only takes us through the medical complexities of cheating death but also looks at it from a more abstract view relating accounts from people who vividly remember their experiences when they were near death and patients whose recoveries cannot medically be explained. He looks not only at the medical explanation for these near death experiences but also the impact culture may have on what these people recall so clearly.

Cheating Death looks at the process of dying from every angle exploring both the clinical and theoretical and providing amazing real life stories that make these ground breaking advances even more astonishing. It is an exciting, thought provoking book that I thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend.

In accordance with FTC regulations please note that a free copy of the book was received by ATC from the publisher.

Giveaway time! Hachette Publishing has kindly offered All Things CNN 5 copies of Dr. Gupta's book, Cheating Death, to giveaway to our readers. To win a copy all you need to do is send your name (screen name is ok) to allthingscnn@gmail.com. Entries will be accepted from December 7th through midnight ET on December 12th. 5 winners will be chosen by random drawing and notified by email that they are lucky winners. Winners will have until December 15th to provide us with their name and address, which we will provide to the publisher. In the event that we don't receive their name and address by December 15th another entry will be chosen as a replacement.

Here are the rules:

• Giveaway copies will be sent directly to the winners by the publisher
• Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win
• No P.O. Boxes

~ Julie


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