Shocked : adventures in bringing back the recently dead

This is a walk through the history of resuscitation science, from the very idea that death may not be so permanent a thing, to the futurists view of a potential cryogenic solution. The solutions people developed have been at times ingenious, hilarious, and remarkably ill-advised. [a: David Casarett|7353447|David Casarett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1492959838p2/7353447.jpg] did a good job of having an active curiosity about even the most questionable claims.

Spoiler Alert: It turns out blowing tobacco smoke up a corpse's rectum may indeed help revive them in certain situations.

Unfortunately, tickling the back of their throat with a feather is not so viable a solution and may indeed do harm.

The true strength of this book was show more found not in the science, but rather the ethical concerns that the author described. While the science is steadily advancing, in its own fascinating way, the ethical concerns remain doggedly silent. Is it always a good idea to resurrect someone? The costs are rarely considered - both medical, and emotional. Resurrection remains an elusive goal, and even when it does succeed it can often render the person resurrected into a shadow of who they once were. Brain damage, coma, and worse can easily be the outcome which only heightens the cost and makes the 'final' death all the more heartbreaking for the family.

This is a tricky problem, and one unlikely to be solved any time soon. In the interim, at least we have this book to begin conversations, and people like [a: Caitlin Doughty|7802044|Caitlin Doughty|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1489075566p2/7802044.jpg] helping us to realize that often death isn't as terrifying and terrible a thing as many make it out to be. show less

An interesting look at the methods we use to resuscitate people whose hearts have stopped and how we can make those methods more effective. Not sure I'm entirely a fan of Casarett's writing style but it was easy to read and pretty informative! While it's nice to look at the "miracles" that can happen in bringing someone back from the dead, and it's great that there's much research into how to do that better, it's important to think about the morality of such decisions. As Casarett says at the end of the book, no one is going to prevent EMTs from trying to resuscitate a loved one in an emergency, even if you know they don't want to be resuscitated. When there's even a slight possibility that they will come through and have some more good show more years, it's hard to think about the greater possibility (especially among the elderly) that they'll just have a few more painful months or weeks.

Also there's a lot of animal testing in this research area so if you're not cool with reading about that, maybe skip this one! show less

Enjoyable, not quite as madcap as Mary roach, but funny and educational. Warning , there is much to disturb animal lovers, experiments including animals are part of the history presented

The history of resuscitation is much more fascinating than I imagined. The author writes this in the first person and enough humor to make a rather morbid topic very palatable. I found the information on general cryogenics rather boring and some of it cold have been pared down, however the other information was all interesting to me.

library copy