CNN doctor explains medical mysteries in new book

“As it turns out, life and death is not a black-and-white issue. There is a gray zone—a faint no-man’s land where you are neither truly dead nor actually alive.”
These are the words of physician-journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, Time Magazine columnist, and chief medical correspondent of CNN. Gupta is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Chasing Life.”

In his newest book, “Cheating Death,” Gupta explains the “gray zone” as he reveals a handful of medical emergencies-turned-miracles, manipulated by seasoned magicians in crisp white coats. He presents several fascinating cases of patients flirting with death—a young skier who dies after a traumatic fall on a slope, a 68-year-old man who had a heart attack while running on a treadmill, and a patient uplifted from a noxious coma.

According to Gupta, a doctor’s courage, efficacy, and optimism can reverse the body’s reactions and revive a seemingly dead patient. A procedure known as “therapeutic hypothermia,” a technique that reduces a patient’s body temperature, was widely used in psychiatric hospitals in the early 20th century. The cooling lends the patient more time to convalesce. Gupta shows that the slightest alterations to existing medical practices and procedures can resuscitate a dying patient.

Gupta dispels the assumption that people who look and act dead are dead. It is not the diminishing flow of oxygen or blood circulation or a heart beat that distinguishes the dead from the living. Instead, it is the doctor pouring over the patient on the operating table with a scalpel in one hand, standing beside a collection of state-of-the-art medical technology, who “shifts the line between life and death.”

Gupta’s commitment to educating the public about health, coupled with his expertise in investigative reporting, make “Cheating Death” unlike any other medicine-related literature. The chapters instigate a narrative about a near-death patient while interlacing Gupta’s medical proficiency from his work as a neurosurgeon. He easily transitions to an objective lens when he quotes other professionals from top-rated hospital research centers, including Dr. Stephan Mayer, professor of clinical neurology and neurological surgery and head of critical care neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Despite the saturation of technical terms, Gupta’s prose remains coherent, consistent, and clear. In fact, he provides vital information about how bystanders can help to save a life, making it instructive for laymen. According to him, a spectator of an accident can simply push the heart and circulate the blood flow throughout the body, which in turn significantly increases the chance of survival for a cardiac arrest patient.