Ticker

"If America could send a man to the moon, why couldn't its best surgeons build an artificial heart? In Ticker, Texas Monthly executive editor and two-time National Magazine Award winner Mimi Swartz shows just how hard it can be to replicate nature's greatest creation. Part investigative journalism, part medical mystery, Ticker is a dazzling story of modern innovation, recounting fifty years of false starts, abysmal failures, and miraculous triumphs, as experienced by one of the world's foremost heart surgeons, O.H. "Bud" Frazier. His journey takes him from a small town in west Texas to one of the country's most prestigious medical institutions, the Texas Heart Institute. The roadblocks to success--medical setbacks, technological shortcomings, government regulations--are immense. But Bud and his associates find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. A field beside the Nile irrigated with an ancient pump. A hardware store in Brisbane, Australia. A seedy bar on the wrong side of Houston. Ticker is also a riveting history of heart surgery, introducing readers to Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley, whose feud dominated its dramatic beginnings. Christiaan Barnard, who changed the world by performing the first heart transplant. Robert Jarvik, whose artificial heart made patient Barney Clark a worldwide symbol of the promise of technology and the perils of experimentation run amuck. Bud's quixotic quest attracts a team of equally brilliant and adventurous supporting players. Billy Cohn, a heart surgeon and inventor who can't resist the call of magic. The driven Daniel Timms, an Australian biomedical engineer with a radical new idea. And, as government money dries up, the unlikeliest of backers, Houston's furniture king, Mattress Mack. In a sweeping narrative of one man's obsession, Ticker takes us on an unforgettable journey into the power and mystery of the human heart."--Jacket.

Prologue: The tin man -- The wizard, 2015 -- How hard could it be? -- The making of a surgeon -- A tour of hell -- The war at home -- The purloined heart -- Experiments -- Barney who? -- The prisoner -- The wilderness -- Synchronicity -- The king of distraction -- Heartmates -- The Australian guy -- Matilda -- The occupation -- The power source -- The dream of eternal life.