Book Description

Physiological constraints confine our bodies to less than one-fifth of the earth's surface. Beyond that fraction lie the extremes. What happens when we go to them?

Dr. Kenneth Kamler has spent years observing exactly what happens. A vice president of the legendary Explorers Club, he has climbed, dived, sledded, floated, and trekked through some of the most treacherous and remote regions in the world. A consultant for NASA, Yale University, and the National Geographic Society, he has explored undersea caves, crossed the frozen Antarctic wastelands, and stitched a boy's hand back together while kneeling in knee-deep Amazonian mud.

The words extreme and survival have lost some of their value from overuse and media hype. By showing us what happens when life is at stake and the body's capacities are put to their greatest test, this book reminds us what these words truly mean. Divided into six sections - jungle, high seas, desert, underwater, high altitude, and outer space - Surviving the Extremes uses firsthand testimony and documented accounts to illustrate what goes on in environments where our instinctive survival strategies must become fully engaged. These stories reveal how infinitely complex are the workings of the human body - and also how heartbreakingly fragile. At the core of this book is a request for the source of our will to survive and the haunting question of why some can and others cannot summon its awesome and nearly mystical power at their moment of greatest need.

Amazon.com

Medical case studies can be fascinating to read, full of drama, heroism, and sometimes tragedy. Most doctors' tales take place in clinics or hospitals, but those pedestrian settings are not for Kenneth Kamler, who practices medicine outside, patching people up with surprising success under harrowing conditions. Surviving the Extremes starts with open-air surgery in the steamy jungles of the Amazon River, moves to disturbingly detailed descriptions of the many ways humans can die at sea, and from there takes white-knuckled readers through the rest of Earth's extreme environments. Krakauer fans will gasp at the book's best chapter, covering the high-altitude medical feats Kamler has performed on Mt. Everest and other peaks. "No course in medical school taught me the proper mixture of oxygen, IV fluids, and Tibetan chants to treat a subdural hematoma in below-zero temperatures on a 3-mile-high glacier," Kamler writes. Instead, he has learned the fine art of adventure doctoring by doing it, and in the process, he's won fans among the world's most prominent risk-takers. Through it all, Kamler remains fascinated by the human body's ability to heal under horrifically dangerous conditions. His medical adventures are inspiring and thrilling, as well as occasionally bloody and disgusting. In short, perfect stories of human survival.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

Ever since Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, books about human survival have captured readers' imagination. Add this book to the list. Kamler is no office-room doctor, preferring to use his skills on survival missions. As he puts it in his prologue, "I practice medicine where I don't belong." He takes the reader along on his explorations-be they on the Amazon or on Mt. Everest. While on the former, he used his medical techniques to save locals; on the latter, he saved climbers, including some of those threatened during the ill-fated 1996 climb chronicled by Krakauer. But Kamler's book is far more than just a story of his own explorations. He uses his journey as a launching point for investigating the nature of survival. In a style reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, he details remarkable stories of human endurance in adverse conditions-adrift at sea in a raft, lost in an unknown desert-while simultaneously educating the reader in the science of survival. For Kamler, the secret lies in the brain, which provides the key to survival: "If the will is there, the brain initiates actions that are appropriate responses to the environmental stress." Even readers who aren't survivalists themselves will find their brains stimulated by Kamlers fluid writing and lively stories.

About Author

Kenneth Kamler, M.D. is vice-president of The Explorers Club, where he has organized a database of information about physiology and endurance. He has been featured on Nightline, CBS's 48 Hours, CNN, and profiled in The New York Times and USA Today. He also appeared in the IMAX movie, Everest. A micro-surgeon specializing in the hand, Dr. Kamler was named a "best doctor" by New York Magazine in 2002, and is director of the Hand Treatment Center in New Hyde Park, New York. His previous book is Doctor on Everest. He lives in New York City.

Book Dimension :

length: (cm)24.2 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)16.4