Paul Kalanithi

Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was an Indian-American neurosurgeon and writer. His book When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir about his life and illness battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House in January 2016.[1] It was on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for multiple weeks.[2]

Early life and education

Paul Kalanithi was born on April 1, 1977 and lived in Westchester, New York. He was born to a Christian family hailing from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, India. Kalanithi had two brothers, Jeevan and Suman; Jeevan is a computer/robotics engineer and Suman is a neurologist. The family moved from Bronxville, New York to Kingman, Arizona when Kalanithi was 10. Kalanithi attended Kingman High School, where he graduated as valedictorian.[3][4]

Kalanithi attended Stanford University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology in 2000.[4][5] After Stanford, he attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied at Darwin College and graduated with a Master of Arts in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.[5] Although he initially considered pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature, Kalanithi then attended the Yale School of Medicine, where he graduated in 2007 cum laude, winning the Dr. Louis H. Nahum Prize for his research on Tourette’s syndrome.[6] He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.[5]

At Yale, Kalanithi met Lucy Goddard, who would become his future wife.[4]

Career

After graduating from medical school, Kalanithi returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine.[4][5]

In May 2013, Kalanithi was diagnosed with metastatic stage IV non-small-cell EGFR-positive lung cancer.[4][7] He died, aged 37, in March 2015.[4]

Personal life

Kalanithi was married to Lucy (née Goddard), with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Acadia ("Cady").[5][8] Lucy is an internist at Stanford University School of Medicine's Clinical Excellence Research Center and wrote the epilogue to When Breath Becomes Air.[9][10][11]

Although Kalanithi was raised in a devout Christian family, he turned away from the faith in his teens and twenties in favour of other ideas.[5] However, he retained "the central values of Christianity — sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness" and returned to Christianity later in his life. In his book, he even states that if he had been more religious in his youth, he would have become a pastor.[5]

Bibliography

Non-fiction books

Essays

Scholarly articles

Only first-authored articles are listed below

  • Kalanithi, P. S.; Arrigo, R. T.; Tran, P; Gephart, M. H.; Shuer, L; Fisher, R; Boakye, M (2014). "Rehospitalization and emergency department use rates before and after vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy: Use of state databases to provide longitudinal data across multiple clinical settings". Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface. 17 (1): 60–4, discussion 64–5. doi:10.1111/ner.12051. PMID 23551457.
  • Kalanithi, P. S.; Henderson, J. M. (2012). "Emerging Horizons in Neuromodulation – New Frontiers in Brain and Spine Stimulation". International review of neurobiology. International Review of Neurobiology. 107: 185–205. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-404706-8.00010-3. ISBN 9780124047068. PMID 23206683. |chapter= ignored (help)
  • Kalanithi, P. A.; Arrigo, R; Boakye, M (2012). "Morbid obesity increases cost and complication rates in spinal arthrodesis". Spine. 37 (11): 982–8. doi:10.1097/BRS.0b013e31823bbeef. PMID 22037526.
  • Kalanithi, P; Schubert, R. D.; Lad, S. P.; Harris, O. A.; Boakye, M (2011). "Hospital costs, incidence, and inhospital mortality rates of traumatic subdural hematoma in the United States". Journal of Neurosurgery. 115 (5): 1013–8. doi:10.3171/2011.6.JNS101989. PMID 21819196.
  • Kalanithi PS, Patil CG, Boakye M (2009). "National complication rates and disposition after posterior lumbar fusion for acquired spondylolisthesis". Spine. 34 (18): 1963–9. doi:10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181ae2243. PMID 19652635.
  • Kalanithi, P. S.; Zheng, W; Kataoka, Y; Difiglia, M; Grantz, H; Saper, C. B.; Schwartz, M. L.; Leckman, J. F.; Vaccarino, F. M. (2005). "Altered parvalbumin-positive neuron distribution in basal ganglia of individuals with Tourette syndrome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (37): 13307–12. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10213307K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502624102. PMC 1201574. PMID 16131542. father. name.

References

  1. Maslin, Janet. "Review: In 'When Breath Becomes Air,' Dr. Paul Kalanithi Confronts an Early Death". New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Print and E-book Nonfiction". New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  3. Steele, Kim. "Obituary: Paul Kalanithi". Daily Miner. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Spector, Rosanne (11 March 2015). "Paul Kalanithi, writer and neurosurgeron, dies at 37". Stanford Medicine News. Stanford University School of Medicine.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kalanithi, Paul (27 May 2016). "Paul Kalanithi: Why I gave up on atheism". Fox News. Fox News Network.
  6. Reisz, Matthew. "Paul Kalanithi, 1977-2015". Times Higher education. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  7. Kalanithi, Paul. "My Last Day as a Surgeon". New Yorker. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  8. O'Kelly, Lisa (14 February 2016). "Lucy Kalanithi: "Paul's view was that life wasn't about avoiding suffering"". The Guardian. The Guardian.
  9. Smith, Duncan (25 April 2018). "Lucy Kalanithi: Work, life, grief, love". BMJ: k1220. doi:10.1136/bmj.k1220.
  10. Kalanithi, Lucy (6 January 2016). "My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow". The New York Times. The New York Times Company.
  11. Stanford University School of Medicine. "Lucy Kalanithi". Stanford University School of Medicine.
  12. Kalanithi, Paul (2014-01-24). "How Long Have I Got Left?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  13. Kalanithi, Paul. "Before I Go". Stanford Medicine Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  14. Kalanithi, Paul (2016-01-11). "My Last Day as a Surgeon". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  15. Kalanithi, Paul. "Remembering Sherwin B. Nuland, the author of How We Die". www.theparisreview.org. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
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