About this item
Breathing is a continuous battle between our need for oxygen and forces in nature that attack our lungs. Three hundred thousand Americans will die of respiratory diseases this year. Gasping for Air is the dramatic story of how infections, toxins, carcinogens, and air pollution strike against one of our basic body functions. The book also describes how we come into the struggle with diseases like asthma, cystic fibrosis, and sleep apnea, which make us vulnerable to assaults on breathing from without and within. We have powerful weapons to defend breathing. Medical science, public health, engineering, and business, all play important roles in the effort to support breathing. Yet, Gasping for Air also reminds readers how breathing support has been at the eye of the storm in many ethical dilemmas of modern healthcare.
About the Author
For more than four decades Kevin Glynn, M. D. has dedicated himself to healing and educating his patients. As a pulmonologist, he dealt with that most essential of bodily functions: breathing.Having battled asthma since childhood, Dr. Glynn understands what it is like not to be able to breathe, allowing him to relate personally to respiratory patients.Now he uses stories from his years in practice to illuminate a variety of challenges to breathing in his book, GASPING FOR AIR.After graduating from Northwestern University Medical School, he served as a resident in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, and as an instructor in the section of Medical Chest Diseases at Milwaukee County General Hospital. He then practiced over thirty years in San Diego as a specialist in pulmonary diseases, and was Medical Director of Respiratory Care at Scripps Mercy Hospiital.Dr. Glynn was Chief of Pulmonary Medicine, Chief of Medicine, and Chief of Staff at Scripps Mercy. He was a Clinical Professor at UCSD School of Medicine and received the Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching at Scripps Mercy.An incisive analyst and talented story teller, Dr. Glynn has published twenty-four articles 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 was its editor.Dr. Glynn lives in La Jolla, California, with his wife, Patty. They have five adult children and nine grandchildren. He is active in Rotary International and is a member of its "Don't Wait, Vaccinate" committee. When he is not reading, writing, or playing with grandchildren, he enjoys golf, and can be found practicing his short game.
