A deeply compelling biography of the pioneering children's heart doctor Helen Taussig, who helped start heart surgery and became a global force against preventable suffering. In
A Heart Afire, Patricia Meisol renders a moving portrait of the indomitable pediatrician and global patient activist Helen Taussig (1898-1986), who famously gathered and publicized evidence linking thalidomide to birth defects, leading to US drug safety laws. Taussig also developed the Blalock-Taussig shunt (along with Alfred Blalock) for infants with congenital heart defects. Spanning Taussig's childhood in Boston, her struggle with dyslexia, her progressive hearing loss, her research contributions, and the founding of her own fledgling children's heart clinic, this book chronicles Taussig's ambition, tenacity, and formidable work ethic. As Meisol shows, Taussig not only saved lives, but also set a bold precedent for other women doctors in the twentieth century, who were largely excluded from medicine.
Meticulously researched and intimately told,
A Heart Afire is unique in its use of a fifty-year-long campaign by Taussig's followers for a worthy memorial portrait and shows how views of women doctors have evolved. Meisol reveals Taussig as an authentic American hero, one who embodies the Emersonian ethic of developing oneself, following the processes of nature, and serving the public. A fiercely independent thinker, Taussig infused herself and her ideas into the medical culture, paving the way not only for other professional women but also for patients then and now to advocate for themselves. Offering an indispensable look at health care as a universal human right,
A Heart Afire is a beacon and a blueprint for creating a more just and compassionate world of medicine.
一本深具吸引力的傳記，講述了開創性兒童心臟醫生海倫·陶西格（Helen Taussig）的故事，她幫助開創心臟手術，並成為對抗可預防痛苦的全球力量。
在《心中之火》（A Heart Afire）一書中，帕特里夏·梅索（Patricia Meisol）描繪了這位不屈不撓的兒科醫生和全球病患活動家海倫·陶西格（1898-1986）的感人肖像。陶西格以收集和公開證據，將沙利度胺（thalidomide）與出生缺陷聯繫起來而聞名，這一舉措促成了美國藥品安全法的制定。陶西格還與阿爾弗雷德·布萊洛克（Alfred Blalock）共同開發了布萊洛克-陶西格分流（Blalock-Taussig shunt），用於治療先天性心臟缺陷的嬰兒。本書涵蓋了陶西格在波士頓的童年、她與閱讀障礙的鬥爭、逐漸失去聽力的過程、她的研究貢獻，以及她創立自己的兒童心臟診所的經歷，記錄了陶西格的抱負、堅韌和卓越的工作倫理。梅索展示了陶西格不僅拯救了生命，還為二十世紀其他女性醫生樹立了大膽的先例，因為當時她們在醫學界大多被排除在外。
《心中之火》經過細緻的研究，並以親密的方式講述，獨特之處在於它使用了陶西格追隨者長達五十年的運動，旨在為她創建一幅值得的紀念肖像，並展示了對女性醫生的看法如何演變。梅索揭示了陶西格作為一位真正的美國英雄，她體現了愛默生（Emerson）所倡導的自我發展、遵循自然法則和服務公眾的倫理。陶西格是一位堅定獨立的思想家，她將自己和她的理念融入醫療文化，不僅為其他專業女性鋪平了道路，也使當時和現在的病患能夠為自己發聲。《心中之火》提供了對健康照護作為普世人權的不可或缺的見解，是創造一個更公正和富有同情心的醫療世界的燈塔和藍圖。
Patricia Meisol is a narrative nonfiction writer and formal journalist who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize multiple times. She previously served in the US Department of Health and Human Services.
