Product Description

Ten years ago, doctors at the Mayo Clinic told thirty-four-year-old Greg Smith that he had an inoperable brain tumor. They gave him three months to live.

Today, ten years later, Smith is fit, symptom-free, and managing his tumor with an experimental hormone therapy--living proof that no matter how dire the diagnosis, you don't have to accept a death sentence.

How did he do it?

In this remarkable book, Smith draws on his own harrowing experiences, and those of other patients who "refused to lie down and die on cue," to show how medical "miracles" are made; from taking control of health care decisions to exploring experimental treatments; from finding the right questions for your doctor to finding the right doctor for your questions; from developing trust in your caregiver to developing faith in yourself; from battling insurance companies to battling the voice in your head that keeps asking, "Why me?"

Making Miracles Happen is not just another survivor's memoir. The story of Greg Smith's return from the threshold of death is certainly inspirational--and deeply moving, and even darkly funny at times--but inspiration is only part of the story. "My purpose," says Smith in the introduction, "is to be helpful." In pursuit of that goal, he weaves the eloquence and insights of doctors, as well as the hard-won wisdom of other patients, into the compelling narrative of his own story.

The result is a book that entertains, educates, and empowers at the same time; a book that inspires with information and insight, not feel-good nostrums; a book that doesn't just tell the story of how one man achieved his medical miracle, but lays out a road map that others can follow; a book that finally brings the light and air of reason into that darkest and most claustrophobic of all places in the heart: the fear of dying.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #717669 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Library Journal
It is everyone's worst nightmare: an inoperable brain tumor, a dire prognosis. At this point, one might naturally give up in despair and compose oneself for the end as best one could. But not Smith (coauthor, with partner Naifeh, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jackson Pollock). From the December day in 1986 when Smith received the shattering diagnosis, the reader is taken on his harrowing quest to beat the odds. First there are the external obstacles intrinsic to medicine and medical economics. (It should be noted?without surprise?that Smith is particularly critical of the system of medical insurance in this country.) Smith also deals with the internal obstacles, especially the temptation of the seriously ill toward a "Why me?" self-pity and depression, to which he himself admits to having succumbed on occasion. It is this honest appraisal of his own shortcomings in the "grit and determination" department that guarantees Making Miracles Happen an appreciative audience. Recommended for consumer health collections.
-?Kay Hogan, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Lib. of the Health Sciences
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When you live with a brain tumor for 20 years, you learn a lot about medicine and about yourself. Smith (Naifeh is his "twenty-two-year partner and coauthor"; their Jackson Pollock [1990] won a Pulitzer Prize) learned how to keep searching until he found the right doctor and the right treatment. He also discovered the importance of the right attitude and of companionable support: be persistent, he says, and when seeing the doctor, have a companion to help in asking questions and remembering instructions. To find the best doctor for your problem, he says, ask other doctors, not their patients; search always for opinions and developing options, not a single right answer; and keep mutual respect between doctor and patient as a goal. Above all, Smith counsels, don't let a disease or an impairing condition turn you into someone different from what you have been. William Beatty

From Kirkus Reviews
What might have been simply another personal account of surviving cancer is in fact an empowering document for anyone with a life-threatening illness. Smith and Naifeh, who won a Pulitzer Prize for their biography of Jackson Pollock and together produce annual reference books on the top doctors and lawyers in the country, are bona fide experts at researching and writing. Here, Naifeh takes a back seat to Smith, who narrates this account. In 1986, aged 34, he was given three months to live by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, who told him his brain tumor was inoperable. Realizing that the statistical odds for his death still left a chance he might live, and needing to take control of his situation, Smith began a search that eventually led him to the right doctor and the right treatment. While describing that search, the authors show how the battle for control of one's life is often a struggle against both one's own feelings of denial and the intimidating, we-know-best attitude of many doctors. To illustrate that the battle can be won, they interviewed dozens of survivors of devastating accidents and illnesses--a parachutist who survived an 11,000-foot fall, a young woman who had the first double-lung transplant--as well as physicians and support group leaders around the country. Their stories, feelings, and insights give dimension to Smith's own experience. To show how the battle can be won, they offer advice on researching one's own disease, asking the right questions, developing an effective doctor-patient relationship. While they stress how essential it is to have the right attitude and how important the support of family or friends can be to winning the battle, they acknowledge that sometimes tough decisions have to be made about continuing the fight, and they argue that deciding where to draw that line is the patient's, not the doctor's, right. Persuasive evidence that ``miracles'' must be worked for--they don't just happen. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Making my OWN miracle happen
Phenomenal and uplifting. That's how I would describe Smith's book. I purchased this book because I was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, at age 22. A craniotomy and a long recovery behind me, I'm still left with part of the tumor, seizures, and daily medication. Smith's book not only led me through what he was going through physically and emotionally, so that I did not feel so alone, but it showed the other side: hope. Through many personal stories of people who had diseases ranging from emphysema to AIDS, amyloidosis to stroke, Smith shows the strength and power that hope, positive thinking, and an attitude of "I'm not giving up!" has had on these fighters. This book made me see that no matter how bad I think things are for me, someone is going through worse, but with a better attitude! Everybody knows someone suffering from a chronic disease. I recommend this book for sufferers and their families. Not only helpful emotionally, it is helpful practically, in showing that getting that second, or third, or fourth opinion may make the difference between not only horrible aftereffects of a surgery, but life and death. Most of all, this book leaves its readers with the message of "Don't give up!" I know I won't.

My Miracle
I can relate to this great book!See,in 2001,Iwas suffering from an infection of the upper respiratory tract.Next thing I know,Iwake up.IN THE HOSPITAL.I had a seizure.No big deal.What happened next was:While having my seizure,I sustained a burst fracture of L1 vertebra.A spinal cord injury.My neurologist said I would never walk again.So of course,I was bummed.My mother,though,would hear none of it.She told me that these doctors are not God.They do not decide your fate.Only you do.Therefore,I decided to work my butt off in rehab.
Here it is 5 years later.Am I walking?Yes!Not only that I walk as well as I did before I got hurt.I work 2 jobs and generally lead a full life.
Mr.Smith's book says all the things I feel.The fight against self pity.The realization that your life will never be the same again.The hard work after.The nature of hospitals.The angels in one's life(my mother comes to mind as does the rest of my family and some good friends).
I feel like I was with him the whole time I read the book.I related to all of the stories he cites.I especially like his line that doctors are like weathermen.I say it all the time.They are NOT God...and I myself am a podiatrist.

Incisive
Although the titles oozes with sap, Smith's book is full of original and interesting takes on the state of modern medicine as it concerns chronic and extremely life-threatening diseases. Especially relevant, I think, are his comments about being active in choosing doctors, doing your own research, and not simply accepting physicians' opinions as divine kernels of wisdom. Unfortunately, like many books in this genre, the writing tends toward the glib; patients' stories are seamlessly intercut with an enormous variety of material, from quotes from the relevant literature to interviews with leading research scientists. Good reading, though.