Amazing Adventures of a Heart Surgeon

Book excerpt: The startling originality of Amazing Adventures of a Heart Surgeon is intrinsically imbued in its focus on historical ethics and esthetic theories. Author and cardiovascular surgeon Domingo Liotta provides a penetrating interpretation from the first millennium BC, considered a major mystery to the world, to modern science. He also discusses the early conception of cardiovascular system, the oxygenation of tissues, the mysterious medical power of shamanism, Taoism, Ugarit, the mythic lost city. It is in this unique melding of Science and humanism that Liotta vehemently intends the definition of a good medical doctor-while recounting the story of his remarkable life. These lectures portray Liotta's dedication in search of the hearts of studious and meditative youths reluctant to change their tools of comprehension and the strategies for mastering difficult-to-understand topics. Thus, Liotta's interests extend from pure science to many adjoining fields-such as philosophy, philology, theology, and education. He shares his knowledge of modern scientific results and his enormous historical information to help rescue his bewildered students. In a collaborative endeavor between science and humanities, Amazing Adventures of a Heart Surgeon reflects Liotta's marvelous adventure to develop the first totally artificial heart and its clinical application-the first in the history of mankind-in his tireless fight for human life.