REVIEW
and varied metaphorical connotations. Metaphors about the heart
abound in many languages and cultures since.
Conventionally, magnanimity, passion, grandiosity, altruism,
charity (caritas), compassion, sympathy, human concern and de-
votion: all have resided in the heart. The heart was considered the
engine that generated heat and was the fountain of human action,
courage, love and desire including spiritual love of God or the
worldly love of another human being. “Even if those connotations
are outdated, they are still deeply relevant to how we think about
this organ and how it shapes our lives,” Jauhar writes. St. Augustine
believed in the primacy of the heart and considered the heart as
the repository of spirituality. Over the centuries, the heart became
the main seat and domain of love, sacred as well as profane. Blaise
Pascall points out, “It is the heart who feels God, not reason. There
you have what faith is: God sensed by the heart, not by reason.”
A heart metaphor for love and kindness appears to be central in
many cultures. The heart is mentioned over 1,000 times in the Bible
- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Psalms 24:3-
5.) In the Quran, the heart is mentioned 132 times and Professor
Ole M. Hoystad (in A History of the Heart Reaktion Books, London
2007) calls Islam the heart culture, as in “the day when wealth and
children will be of no benefit except for who will appear before
Godwith Qalbe Saleem - pure and sound heart.”
The last century has seen many transformative and epoch-mak-
ing procedures performed on the heart. Jauhar discusses the first
open heart surgery performed by an African American physician,
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in Chicago in 1893. Other procedures
and discoveries are discussed in detail including cardiac cathe-
terization, electrophysiologic studies and ablative procedures for
dysrhythmias, catheter-based interventional procedures including
coronary stenting, coronary artery bypass surgery and valvular
heart surgery, surgeries for congenital cardiac malformations and
many other interventions. The invention of permanent pacemaker,
implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and cardiac assist devices as
bridge to cardiac transplantation are a few others worth mentioning.
Throughout the book, Dr. Jauhar provides narratives of per-
sonal experiences with his own family and numerous patients
and their travails, frustrations and disappointments. Triumphs of
technologic advances, use of intensive care units, rhythm control,
revascularization procedures and use of cardioprotective drugs are
all described with their backgrounds and emergence as mainstream
therapies. The book is a masterful tapestry of the amazing narrative
of advancement in medical science and art coupled with his personal
expertise as a cardiologist and a heart failure specialist. The book
is a delight to read.
Dr. Seyal practices cardiovascular diseases with Floyd Memorial Medical
Group-River Cities Cardiology.
MAY 2019
29