Williamsburg Regional Library

Extreme medicine, how exploration transformed medicine in the twentieth century, Kevin Fong, M.D

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-285) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Extreme medicine

bibliography

852222087

Kevin Fong, M.D

how exploration transformed medicine in the twentieth century

In the twentieth century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremes, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer. Doctors, scientists, and explorers all share a defining trait: they push on in the face of grim odds. Because of their extreme exploration we not only understand our physiology better; we have also made enormous strides in the science of healing. Drawing on his own experience as an anesthesiologist, intensive care expert, and NASA adviser, Dr. Kevin Fong examines how cutting-edge medicine pushes the envelope of human survival by studying the human body's response when tested by physical extremes. Extreme Medicine explores different limits of endurance and the lens each offers on one of the systems of the body. The challenges of Arctic exploration created opportunities for breakthroughs in open heart surgery; battlefield doctors pioneered techniques for skin grafts, heart surgery, and trauma care; underwater and outer space exploration have revolutionized our understanding of breathing, gravity, and much more. Avant-garde medicine is fundamentally changing our ideas about the nature of life and death

Introduction -- Ice -- Fire -- Heart -- Trauma -- Intensive care -- Water -- Orbit -- Mars -- Final frontiers

adult

How exploration transformed medicine in the twentieth century