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Life with Sudden Death: A Tale of Moral Hazard and Medical Misadventure
The youngest of nine children, Michael Downing was three when his father died — suddenly and inexplicably. No autopsy was performed. The family diagnosis was God’s will.
As a boy, Downing rigorously trained as a spiritual athlete, preparing to vault into heaven. But eventually he escaped the religious dogma, and the family arena — until one of his brothers died in 2003, suddenly and inexplicably. No autopsy was performed.
Alarmed, Downing pursued a Drawn into a world of researchers, clinicians, and manufacturers with their own arcane ethics and faith, Downing discovered he had inherited a mutant protein from his father, and the first symptom would be his sudden death.
To save his life, a defibrillator was hard-wired to his heart. Within weeks, he needed emergency surgery to remove the device and the life-threatening infection he got with it. Two months later, he was re-implanted — only to read in his morning newspaper that the new wires anchored to his heart were prone to failure. His device might be powerless, or it might deliver a series of unwarranted, possibly fatal, shocks.
From a bedeviled boyhood in the Berkshires to a grim comedy of errors in one of Boston’s best hospitals, Life with Sudden Death is a wild ride.
As a boy, Downing rigorously trained as a spiritual athlete, preparing to vault into heaven. But eventually he escaped the religious dogma, and the family arena — until one of his brothers died in 2003, suddenly and inexplicably. No autopsy was performed.
Alarmed, Downing pursued a Drawn into a world of researchers, clinicians, and manufacturers with their own arcane ethics and faith, Downing discovered he had inherited a mutant protein from his father, and the first symptom would be his sudden death.
To save his life, a defibrillator was hard-wired to his heart. Within weeks, he needed emergency surgery to remove the device and the life-threatening infection he got with it. Two months later, he was re-implanted — only to read in his morning newspaper that the new wires anchored to his heart were prone to failure. His device might be powerless, or it might deliver a series of unwarranted, possibly fatal, shocks.
From a bedeviled boyhood in the Berkshires to a grim comedy of errors in one of Boston’s best hospitals, Life with Sudden Death is a wild ride.
- GenresMemoir
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 17, 2020
A memoir in two parts, the first focusing on the author's coming of age in a large, close, devout Catholic family and the second detailing his experience with the medical world after learning that he has the same genetic defect that led to the early, sudden death of his father and older brother. A narrative about family, acceptance and love told with humor and honesty.
February 28, 2011
This a fabulous memoir. Michael Downing, who has writien both fiction and non-fiction, brings all of his writing skill to his own story, or really 2 stories woven together. One is the story of Downing's experience growing up as the 9th of 9 children in an Irish Catholic family, the other is his experience as an adult who learns that he has a life- threatening heart condition. How are the two story lines connected? There are several good answers to that questions. The first is that Downing's illness is a genetic one that killed his father when Downing was three years old.
His father's death harrows his family, his adult medical experience is a second harrowing that leaves Downing to wonder if he made a good decision when he decided to have a defibrillaotr implated in his chest.
Downing's book is funny and sad and heartening and heartbreaking.
His father's death harrows his family, his adult medical experience is a second harrowing that leaves Downing to wonder if he made a good decision when he decided to have a defibrillaotr implated in his chest.
Downing's book is funny and sad and heartening and heartbreaking.
December 13, 2009
A touching memoir with an edge. Great writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews