The first transplant surgeon : the flawed genius of Nobel prize winner, Alexis Carrel / David Hamilton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hamilton, David, 1939- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Carrel, Alexis, 1873-1944.

Carrel, Alexis.

Surgeons--France--Biography.

Surgeons.

France.

Organ Transplantation--history.

Medical Subjects:

Surgeons.

Organ Transplantation--history.

France.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xviii, 587 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, [2017]

Summary:

This is a new account, of how, in the early 1900s, the French-born surgeon Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) set the groundwork for the later success in human organ transplantation, and gained America's first Nobel Prize in 1912. His other contributions were the first operations on the heart, and the first cell culture methods. He was prominent in military surgery in WW1, and in the 1930s, gained further fame when working with the aviator Charles Lindbergh on an organ perfusion pump. But controversy followed his every move, including concerns over scientific misconduct, notably his claim to have obtained "immortal" heart cells, now shown to be fraudulent. In 1934, he authored a best-selling book Man, the Unknown based on his strongly-held conservative, spiritual, political and eugenic views, adding a belief in faith healing and parapsychology. He settled in Paris in WW2 under the German occupation, believing that the conditions would allow him to refashion the degenerate Western civilization. His extremist views re-emerged in the 1990s when they proved interesting to rightwing politicians, and in a bizarre twist, jihadist Islamists now laud his criticisms of the West. Book jacket.

Contents:

Lyon days

New life in North America

Early years at the Institute

Carrel established

The birth of tissue culture

The Nobel prize

Heart and blood vessel surgery

War in France

The demonstration hospital

Early 1920s research

Life in the 1920s

Confidence gone

His book "Man, the unknown"

The organ pump

Wider involvement

Retirement nears

To France and back

Back to France

Aftermath.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789814699365

9814699365

9789814699372

9814699373

OCLC:

960493592