cover image Taking Heart

Taking Heart

A. C. Greene. Simon & Schuster, $18.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-68392-4

In 1988, Greene, author of A Personal Country and columnist for the Dallas M o rning News , underwent a heart transplant operation at St. Paul Medical Center in Dallas. His sense of renewed life prompted this ``survivor's journal,'' in which he describes advances in immunosuppressants and coordinating techniques that make organ transplants increasingly common, and the complex ethical/medical questions that affect the recipient and the donor's family. Green's testimony of euphoria at being granted a second life, along with his descriptions of postoperative tests and the regimen of anti-rejection drugs, plus his account of the physical and psychological problems of convalescence, should be invaluable to transplant candidates. (July)