Gasping for Air

Kevin Glynn, MD, is a senior physician with ScrippsHealth in La Jolla, California. His 30 years treating respiratory disorders and his personal experience as someone with asthma make him uniquely qualified to tell the story of breathing. He practiced as a pulmonary specialist in San Diego and was Medical Director of Respiratory Care at Scripps Mercy Hospital. Recognized as a leader in San Diego medicine, Dr. Glynn was chief of pulmonary medicine, chief of medicine, and chief of staff at Scripps Mercy. He chaired the Biomedical Ethics Committee of the San Diego County Medical Society. Recognized for his contributions as a bedside teacher, he was a clinical professor at UCSD School of Medicine, and received the Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching at Scripps Mercy. A talented story teller, Dr. Glynn has published 20 articles in nationally circulated journals on topics related to clinical medicine, biomedical ethics, and professionalism in medicine. He was a long-time member of the Editorial Board of the San Diego Physician, the monthly journal of the San Diego County Medical Society, and for two years served as its editor. He is a member of the San Diego Writers & Editors Guild, and San Diego Writers’ Ink. For three years he was medical commentator on the radio program, Tuned in on Health, which aired weekly in San Diego, and was a frequent media analyst on medical topics.

Glynn, a medical doctor who specializes in respiratory care, makes it impossible to take breathing for granted. It’s vital for life. Within five minutes of not doing it, our brains begin to die. Glynn accurately describes breathing in a narrative that is part history, part biography, and part science. He covers the history of tuberculosis, pneumonia, and polio. He talks about 'suffocating work.' More than 300 substances cause occupational asthma. And he looks at lung cancer, which kills 160,000 Americans per year, including his father, a heavy smoker. Who could blame him and his peers? Old ads featured physicians touting the refreshing power of cigarettes. Like two of his children and grandchildren, Glynn suffers from asthma. But his childhood condition came with a silver lining. Because sports were tricky for him as a child, he turned to books. And now he’s written one that is well researched and thoughtful and that should appeal to a large audience, given that 36 million Americans live with respiratory impairment. Inhale, exhale, appreciate.

• TimelineAuthor’s NoteIntroduction PART I. Worldwide Plagues1. The Disease Medicine Never Cured(Tuberculosis)2. Captains of the Men of Death(Bacterial Pneumonia)3. They Stacked Caskets in the Halls(Influenza)4. The Man in the Iron Lung(Polio)5. Products of Parasitic Beings(Fungal Infections)6. Some Like It Hot(Legionnaires’ Disease)7. The Virus with No Name(SARS, MERS)PART II. Killer Air8. Suffocating Work(Occupational Diseases) 9. Code Red(Fires and Disasters) 10. Cleopatra Reincarnate(Overdoses and Toxins) 11. Smoking Beagles(Tobacco Smoking) 12. Dad, and the Werewolf (Lung Cancer) 13. The Lethal Brown Cloud(Atmospheric Pollution) PART III. Vulnerable Breathing 14. Panting for Air(Asthma) 15. Lungs That Do Not Collapse(COPD) 16. The Great Masquerader(Pulmonary Blood Clots) 17. Cells Like Elongated Crescents(Genetic Breathing Disorders) 18. The Pump and the Bellows(The Heart and the Lungs) 19. To Die To Sleep (Sleep Disordered Breathing) 20. The First Breaths(Newborn Respiratory Distress) PART IV. Breathing Defends21. Around the World on Oxygen(Respiratory Care) 22. Thank You For My Life(Ventilators) PART V. Breathing Adapts23. I Wouldn’t Want That for Myself(Ethical Dilemmas) 24. A Science of Uncertainty(Closing)