Combat Medic shares Corporal Vernon L. Parker's first-person account of World War II. Parker, like many other young men drafted in WWII, was transported from a simple, hard-working life in rural America in 1942 to a complex, stressful environment that would forever change his life. Nothing could have prepared him for the experiences he encountered as a combat medic and ambulance driver with the Third Army, led by "Blood and Guts" General George S. Patton, Jr. Parker was part of the D-Day invasion. After landing at Normandy, he spent more than ten months on the front lines, supporting the armored divisions through five major campaigns in France, Luxembourg, and Germany. A gifted storyteller, Parker presents a self-deprecating narrative filled with keen insights and colorful descriptions of day-to-day life with fellow infantrymen, officers, civilians, and enemy soldiers. As his saga unfolds, it describes the transformation of a naive and cocky country boy into a battle-weary survivor struggling to maintain his dignity, compassion, and humanity. In Combat Medic, Parker demonstrates a startling recall of events from decades ago, including detailed descriptions of people, places, and even conversations-indicating just how much of an impact those war years had on him.

It all started with a Hob Nob. As Dr Matt Morgan, an intensive care consultant, examined a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling some biscuit crumbs, he saw a flock of birds fly past the window. They must inhale objects all the time when flying, how do they survive? he thought to himself. This began an investigation that spanned continents, species and millennia. For animal science has so much to teach us about human medicine. While some of the overlaps and parallels are obvious - we know how much DNA we share with primates, the first pig heart has been transplanted into a human - there is so much more that we have learnt from the animal world. For example, studying kangaroos, in particular the female's three vaginas, has improved in-vitro fertilisation success rates. Watching how a giraffe breathes can help save the life of someone struggling with asthma. Investigating why birds that live in the frozen Arctic circle don't freeze to death led to advances with treating hypothermia. Getting a ECG on the 150kg heart of a humpback whale was instrumental to keeping patients with cardiac failure living longer. We owe animals so much, it's time to focus on examining how they live and what we still have to learn from them. Better shared understanding of how our species coexists with millions of others can lead to untold medical advances, help both humans and animals and improve the world for all creatures from single-celled bacteria to a 30,000 kg whale. Who knows, maybe a kiss from a frog will save your life?

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - ON the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determined to publish a selection of his various papers; by way of introduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole, forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. In the States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce the whole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matter which was at once its occasion and its justification, so large an account of a man so little known may seem to a stranger out of all proportion. But Jenkin was a man much more remarkable than the mere bulk or merit of his work approves him. It was in the world, in the commerce of friendship, by his brave attitude towards life, by his high moral value and unwearied intellectual effort, that he struck the minds of his contemporaries. His was an individual figure, such as authors delight to draw, and all men to read of, in the pages of a novel. His was a face worth painting for its own sake. If the sitter shall not seem to have justified the portrait, if Jenkin, after his death, shall not continue to make new friends, the fault will be altogether mine.

Stories about American healthcare have been told in print, on film, on television and radio, and in every form imaginable. The story of American healthcare, however, has never been told in quite the same way as in Dr. Blair Beebe's Doctor Tales. Through lyrical and compelling narrative, Dr. Beebe uses fourteen tales to tell his story of how our healthcare structure evolved to become the most advanced, and problematic, system in the world. Beginning with the viewpoint of an impressionable twenty-one-year-old first-year medical student, he continues with numerous patient encounters in hospital settings, and ends with a fictional community's response to an avian influenza epidemic transposed from a real outbreak in the Far East. Doctor Tales draws from the lives of real doctors, nurses, and patients to show the changes that have occurred during the second half of the twentieth century that have led to spectacular new treatments, and equally stunning shortfalls in healthcare.

This is a memoir in the form of adventures of an itinerant pathologist from medical college to cancer research and teaching. The book takes the reader from the streets of the old city of London and St. Bartholomew's Hospital to medical schools and research centers in several European countries, Africa, Canada and the USA. Although autobiographical the emphasis of the story is found in the biographical sketches of the many fascinating characters encountered in this journey. All of the events are true, and although some of the individuals identities have been protected most are named; indeed they are truly part of my journey. Attempts have been made to describe diseases, their operations and autopsies in non-technical language expressing the excitement of discoveries particularly in cancer research and experimental treatments. This is not a treatise or a textbook but the life story of those who have devoted years to following in the footsteps of disease. The book is directed to all who are intrigued by new adventures, travel and the desire to have a deeper appreciation of body, mind and spirit.

This memoir shares one individual's journey and his testimony to the goodness of God. Entranced in the complexities of life, he was enjoying his childhood-until the accident ...

A head injury has these components: physical, behavioral, psychological, physiological, perceptual, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive.

Till Death Do Us Part explores struggles for dealing with the head-injured; physical aggression and rage and whether they can be overcome; family dynamics; hope for the head-injured community; and conflict tips.

In this book, you will read of some tragic behavior and its consequences. May you experience God's peace as the details are sewn together.

"With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26 NIV).

This is a cursory glance at my life. It hones in on the head injury (TBI) I suffered as a youth. It traces my development into young adulthood and enters into my married life. My relationship with Dana is briefly romanticized and the arrival of our children glorified. The union with my beloved bride started to change dramatically over time. Often with the distractions in life, I lose my focus and then my cool. My head injury was the source of these changes. It became the greatest culprit of all. Unfortunately, my wife fell victim to my relentless physical aggression, albeit unintentionally. As the story unfolds, for my wife the question would be her reaction-Till Death Do Us Part ... or not?

"Is medical education's mission to increase the earning capacity of the profession or is it to improve the public welfare and to advance medical knowledge?" To answer this question, the author has let the "great ones" of medicine's past address the reader directly. Flexner divided MDs into two groups: those in academic medicine and those in private practice and concluded that the two groups are inherently at war with one another. And, Flexner observed: without the faculty controlling patient beds, "the school cannot even organize a clinical faculty in any proper sense of the term." The author humorously discusses problems encountered in pursuing these lofty goals. Stories of growing up in South Alabama--getting a medial education--hospital work--a tour of duty at NIH--and thirty years in the Texas Medical Center spice these fascinating life-experiences.

A physicist and an inventor, Jules Janssen (1824-1907) devoted his life to astronomical research. He spent many years traveling around the world to observe total Solar eclipses, demonstrating that a new era of science had just come thanks to the use of both spectroscopy and photography, and persuading the French Government of the necessity of founding a new observatory near Paris. He became its director in 1875. There, at Meudon, he began routine photographic recordings of the Sun surface and had a big refractor and a big reflector built. Meanwhile, he also succeeded in building an Observatory at the summit of Mont-Blanc. The story of this untiring and stubborn globe-trotter is enriched by extracts of the unpublished correspondence with his wife. One can thus understand why Henriette often complained of the solitude in which she was left by her peripatetic husband: "There are men who leave their wives for mistresses; you do it for journeys!" ... Basking in the glow of his success, Janssen was able to undertake the construction of the great astrophysical observatory of which he had dreamed. It was at Meudon that he had it built.

Bradley Carlson's muscular dystrophy causes brutal leg cramps that leave him crumpled on the floor. He can't climb stairs and curbs, and sometimes he can't even move.

But none of that stopped him from putting his best foot forward and walking through his home state of Wisconsin. He walked through 595 incorporated cities, trekking from Lake Michigan to the mighty Mississippi.

During his journey, he experienced his share of falls and challenges, but he also met incredible people, enjoyed special moments, and witnessed the breathtaking beauty of his home state, including waterfalls, desert-like dunes along Lake Michigan, and picturesque mountaintops and forest views.

Bradley didn't set out on this journey to raise money or hand out brochures. He simply did it to show himself and others that someone with muscular dystrophy can accomplish great things.

You'll laugh, cry, meet new friends, and discover new places in this inspirational memoir about one man's refusal to give up while seeing "Wisconsin 1 Step at a Time."

Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke became a pioneer in the digital universe twenty-seven years ago, when she logged in to the LexisNexis research service as a first-year law student at Howard University School of Law. She was immediately smitten with what the World Wide Web could do. Later, while attending the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995, Leeke found herself in an Internet cafe, where she experienced an interaction that changed her life.

Over time, through interactions and conversations both online and in-person, Leeke developed the concept of "digital sisterhood." Embracing this revolutionary concept led to a complete career reinvention that finally allowed her to embrace her enormous creative spirit. She found in her digital sisters true "sheroes" and virtual mentors. Her blogging and social media adventures highlight the lessons she learned in the process, the reasons she launched the Digital Sisterhood Network, and the experiences that caused her to adopt what she terms the "fierce living" commitments.

In her memoir, Leeke details her journey, sharing experiences and insights helped her and her digital sisters use the Internet as a self-discovery tool and identifying leadership archetypes that shaped her role as a social media leader.

Just how far did Charles Darwin's luck - both good and bad - affect his life and scientific discoveries? One might make a case for saying that Darwin's life was dogged by ill-luck (or perhaps ill-fortune is more appropriate). His mother died when he was seven; he was sent to a school at which he 'learnt little'; he left Edinburgh Medical School after two years, unqualified. He undertook a five-year voyage although he was prone to sea-sickness; his girlfriend (of whom there is evidence he was very fond) married someone else a few months into this voyage. He was affected by ill-health throughout much of his life. One of his children appears to have been mentally handicapped and this child, and also his beloved Annie, died in infancy. In addition to all this, his brother became addicted to drugs.On the other hand one could argue that he had a privileged and fortunate life - perhaps the more common view. At a number of key points in his life he made a choice, or others made a choice, or circumstances occurred, that profoundly influenced the path that he took. There is a school of thought, one that this book investigates, that although Darwin came to the right conclusions, he did not actually follow the right path in getting there. While his science was sometimes flawed, he had the distinct knack of good instinct. Whilst on his voyage to the Galapagos vital evidence that would have led to his theories becoming clearer quite literally slipped through his fingers - Galapagos turtles were caught, examined and their shells thrown overboard. Had he been more thorough, Darwin may have noticed that the clues to his theory of evolution were on these very shells.

Professor Matthew Heddle (1828-97) was a larger-than-life character, a renowned academic and one of Scotland's most famous mineralogists. His rich legacy includes: Encyclopaedia Britannica 9th edition (section on Mineralogy) A fossil fish Heddleichthys A mineral named after him (Mattheddleite) A summary of the Mineralogy of Scotland (published posthumously) 55 scientific papers 5,700 specimens from his collection now housed in the National Museum of Scotland and the National Museums Collection Centre. 10 children This book, by Heddle's great-great-grandson, is not an account of his scientific work but is about Heddle the man; it provides a much fuller picture of him than anything that has appeared before.

Michael Pupin's was a genuinely American story, the lifelong journey of a boy from rural Serbia, from a town so tiny it appeared on no maps, who became one of the greatest scientists of the early 20th century, changing the lives of people the world over with his technological innovations-he invented the therapeutic X-ray and made telephone communications practical and inexpensive-and helping to invent the modern world we know today. First published in 1922, Pupin's autobiography won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924, but Pupin's insightful and incisive words are their own greatest recommendation. American physicist and writer MICHAEL IDVORSKY PUPIN (1858-1935) was born in Serbia and emigrated to the United States as a teenager. As a professor and researcher at Columbia University, he invented sonar and made important discoveries in the fields of X-ray physics and telecommunications.

On the eve of the centennial of the Wright brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, a new generation will learn about the other man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in secrecy, word of their first flights had not reached Europe when Santos-Dumont took to the skies in 1906. The dashing, impeccably dressed inventor entertained Paris with his airborne antics--barhopping in a little dirigible that he tied to lampposts, circling above crowds around the Eiffel Tower, and crashing into rooftops. A man celebrated, even pursued by the press in Paris, London, and New York, Santos-Dumont dined regularly with the Cartiers, the Rothschilds, and the Roosevelts. But beneath his lively public exterior, Santos-Dumont was a frenzied genius tortured by the weight of his own creation.Wings of Madness chronicles the science and history of early aviation and offers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary and tormented man, vividly depicting the sights and sounds of turn-of-the-century Paris. It is a book that will do for aviation what The Man Who Loved Only Numbers did for mathematics.