Paul Kalanithi

Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was an Indian-American neurosurgeon and writer. His book When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir about his life and illness battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House in January 2016.[1] It was on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for multiple weeks.[2]

Early life and education

Paul Kalanithi was born on April 1, 1977 and lived in Westchester, New York. Kalanithi had two brothers, Jeevan and Suman; Jeevan is a computer/robotics engineer and Suman is a vascular surgeon.[3] The family moved from Bronxville, New York to Kingman, Arizona when Kalanithi was 10. Kalanithi attended Kingman High School, where he graduated as valedictorian.[3][4]

Kalanithi attended Stanford University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology in 2000.[4][5] After Stanford, he attended the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.[5] Although he initially considered pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature, Kalanithi then attended the Yale School of Medicine, where he graduated in 2007 cum laude, winning the Lewis H. Nahum Prize for his research on Tourette’s syndrome.[6] He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.[5]

At Yale, Kalanithi met Lucy Goddard, who would become his future wife.[4]

Career

After graduating from medical school, Kalanithi completed his residency training in neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience.[4][5]

In May 2013, Kalanithi was diagnosed with metastatic stage IV non-small-cell EGFR-positive lung cancer.[4][7] Paul died, aged 37, in March, 2015.[4]

Personal life

Kalanithi was married to Lucy (née Goddard), with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Acadia ("Cady").[5][8] Lucy is an internist at Stanford University School of Medicine's Clinical Excellence Research Center and wrote the epilogue to When Breath Becomes Air.[9][10]

Although Kalanithi was raised in a devout Christian family, he turned away from the faith in his teens and twenties in favour of science.[5] However, he retained "the central values of Christianity — sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness" and returned to the faith later in his life.[5]

Bibliography

Non-fiction books

Essays

Scholarly articles

References

  1. ↑ Maslin, Janet. "Review: In 'When Breath Becomes Air,' Dr. Paul Kalanithi Confronts an Early Death". New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Print and E-book Nonfiction". New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 Steele, Kim. "Obituary: Paul Kalanithi". Daily Miner. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Spector, Rosanne (11 March 2015). "Paul Kalanithi, writer and neurosurgeron, dies at 37". Stanford Medicine News. Stanford University School of Medicine.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kalanithi, Paul (27 May 2016). "Paul Kalanithi: Why I gave up on atheism". Fox News. Fox News Network.
  6. ↑ Reisz, Matthew. "Paul Kalanithi, 1977-2015". Times Higher education. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Kalanithi, Paul. "My Last Day as a Surgeon". New Yorker. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  8. ↑ O'Kelly, Lisa (14 February 2016). "Lucy Kalanithi: "Paul's view was that life wasn't about avoiding suffering"". The Guardian. The Guardian.
  9. ↑ Kalanithi, Lucy (6 January 2016). "My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow". The New York Times. The New York Times Company.
  10. ↑ Stanford University School of Medicine. "Lucy Kalanithi". Stanford University School of Medicine.
  11. ↑ Kalanithi, Paul. "Before I Go". Stanford Medicine Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  12. ↑ Kalanithi, Paul (2016-01-11). "My Last Day as a Surgeon". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  13. ↑ "Altered parvalbumin-positive neuron distribution in basal ganglia of individuals with Tourette syndrome". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
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