Wednesday, October 3, 2012

New, digital `Work of Human Hands' published




A NEW ‘WORK OF HUMAN HANDS’

Timeless medical classic updated to 2012, with all-new chapters and photos
 
October 3, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON –– Crossroad Press is pleased to announce release of the new edition of the critically acclaimed book THE WORK OF HUMAN HANDS, by G. Wayne Miller, a timeless medical journey through pioneering surgeon Dr. Hardy Hendren’s legendary operating room that the Los Angeles Times called “impossible to forget.”
Set at Boston Children’s Hospital, which U.S. News & World Report consistently rates as America’s best children’s hospital, THE WORK OF HUMAN HANDS is available now for the first time in digital format. An audio book and a new paperback edition will also be available soon. These 2012 editions include a new introduction and a greatly expanded epilogue updating readers on Hendren and patient Lucy Moore today.
The central narrative remains an epic story of struggle against seemingly impossible odds as Hendren faces one of his biggest challenges: Lucy Moore, a fourteen-month-old girl born with life-threatening defects of the heart, central nervous system and genitourinary system. Before Hendren, surgeons regarded Lucy's condition as fatal.
But at the hands of master surgeon Hendren, she will go on to lead a normal life. And Hendren is aided in that quest by Aldo R. Castaneda, the pioneering cardiac surgeon, and R. Michael Scott, the internationally renowned neurosurgeon. Hendren, Castaneda and Scott are all affiliated with the Harvard Medical School.
The Work of Human Hands is also the story of a revered hospital, its lore, its people and their remarkable accomplishments – an example of the best of health care in America. Poignant and dramatic, lively and engrossing, with breathtaking insight into the craft of surgery, The Work of Human Hands is medical and literary journalism at its best.
“At a time when TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and ER win huge followings for their stories, The Work of Human Hands stands out as a real-life medical drama with a cast of uniquely colorful characters,” said Crossroad publisher David N. Wilson. “We are thrilled to publish these new editions of the classic Work of Human Hands.”
Said author G. Wayne Miller: “With health care dominating the public discourse today -- and rightly so -- it’s refreshing to rejoice in the triumphs. American medicine truly can perform miracles.”
Today, Lucy Moore, the 14-month-old baby who spent nearly 24 hours on Hendren’s operating table is a college graduate, fully healed and living a normal life.
Hendren performed his last surgery in 2004, when he was 78 years old, but he continues to work full-time on his non-profit W. Hardy Hendren Education Foundation for Pediatric Surgery and Urology. He still receives some of the world’s most prestigious medical honors, most recently the Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons, in June 2012.
The publisher and author are donating a portion of the proceeds from this edition of The Work of Human Hands to the Hendren Foundation.
The digital edition of the book is available online at Kindle/Amazon, at the Crossroad Press Digital store, on Barnes &Noble.com's Nook, iTunes, Sony, Kobo and at Overdrive.com and EBSCO for libraries. Audio and paperback versions of the new edition will be available online and in bookstores later this year.

Praise for The Work of Human Hands:

“A song of suffering and redemption that is harrowing to read and impossible to forget... Only rarely does a work of nonfiction equal or surpass the novel in the art of story-telling, the play of emotion and the sheer grandeur of human spirit... To this short list, I must add The Work of Human Hands.”
–– Los Angeles Times

“Mr. Miller reminds us that in the hands of visionary and dedicated doctors, miracles still happen.”
––  New York Times Book Review

“At a time when so many books are telling us what is wrong with American medicine, it’s nice to see one that tells us what’s good about those who provide our care.”
–– Library Journal

“The sheer drama of it all is gripping throughout.”
–– Vermont Sunday Magazine

G. Wayne Miller is a staff writer at The Providence Journal, a documentary filmmaker, and the author of three novels, three short story collections and seven books of non-fiction, including THE XENO CHRONICLES: Two Years on the Frontier of Medicine Inside Harvard’s Transplant Research Lab and KING OF HEARTS: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, which is in Hollywood development. He has been honored for his writing more than 40 times and was a member of the Providence Journal team that was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. Three documentaries he wrote and co-produced have been broadcast on PBS, including The Providence Journal’s COMING HOME, about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nominated in 2012 for a New England Emmy and winner of a regional Edward R. Murrow Award. Miller is Visiting Fellow at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center, in Newport, R.I. Visit him at www.gwaynemiller.com

For more information and author interviews, please contact David Niall Wilson, publisher@crossroadpress.com or tel. 252-340-3952. Visit www.crossroadpress.com

For interviews with Dr. Hendren, please send an email to eaglepeakmedia@yahoo.com

Crossroad Press / 141 Brayden Dr. / Hertford, NC 27944

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