A Matter of Life and Death

Inside the Hidden World of the Pathologist

Sue Armstrong

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781847675811
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847679055
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Neuroscience
• Index: Biological Sciences

A Matter of Life and Death profiles some of the world's most eminent and pioneering pathologists. This is a hidden world, yet one we will all inevitably encounter at some time in our lives, for pathology lies at the cornerstone of modern medicine. It is pathologists who are responsible for recognising new diseases such as AIDS, SARS or bird flu, and for diagnosing which cancer a patient is suffering from. And it is pathologists who must explain the cause of death at the autopsy table.

A Matter of Life and Death tells fascinating stories of mysterious illnesses and miraculous scientific breakthroughs. But it is also crammed full of extraordinary characters - from the forensic anthropologist with his own Body Farm in Tennessee to the doctor who had a heart-and-lung transplant and ended up using her own lungs for research.

INDEX

• Ackerman, Lauren 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
• adipocere (‘grave wax’) 1
• African National Congress (ANC) 1, 2
• AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
  • Projet SIDA 1
  • tuberculosis and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  • see also HIV
• Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool 1, 2, 3
  • damage to profession following
  • crisis at 1, 2
  • impact of crisis at 1, 2, 3, 4
  • practices at 1, 2
  • relatives, attitude of 1, 2, 3
• Alzheimer’s disease 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• America’s Forgotten Pandemic (Crosby, A.) 1
  • see also Spanish flu
• Amnesty International 1
• amoebiasis 1
• anatomy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Anderson, John 1
• Anthropological Research Facility see Body Farm
• Argentina 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), US 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• autopsy 1, 2, 3, 4
  • and ante-mortem diagnosis 1
  • babies 1, 2, 3
  • consecutive deaths, autopsies on 1
  • declining rates of 1, 2
  • history of 1, 2
  • medico-legal basis for...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• ‘Physician, Heal Thyself’
• ‘Children are not Just Little Adults’
• Reading the Bones
• Witness to the Ravages of Aids
• How Bodies Decay: Lessons from the Body Farm
• Cancer in Close-Up
• The Deadly Secrets of Spanish Flu
• Who was the First Pathologist?
• Science in the Service of Human Rights
• Mad Cows and Human Disease
• From One Generation to the Next
• Of Rough Politics and Powerful Pathology
• Shaken Babies and Unshakable Minds
• Diagnosis: A Marriage of Art and Science
• Easing the Pain of Loss
• Stem Cells and the Body’s Remarkable Capacity for Repair
• Forensics in a Culture of Violence
• Lessons in Living and Dying
• Glossary
• Index
• Acknowledgements
• Copyright Page