Synopsis "Die Once Live Forever"
Note: 20% of the royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Operation Walk. From the heart and mind of world-renowned orthopedic surgeon, Lawrence Dorr, M.D., his second historical novel, Die Once Live Forever continues the story of the Sullivan family's journey through life woven intimately with the transformation of medicine. The book begins during World War II where his first novel, Die Once Live Twice, left off. It follows the grandchildren of Katherine as they devote their lives to the family heritage of advancing medicine. Medicine itself is in its Golden Age of developing effective treatments for disabling diseases. Success has been found mostly with those treatments that fix the human machine, such as for structural heart disease, cataracts, fractures and arthritic joints. Vaccines for viral diseases have been developed because viruses can now be grown in the laboratory by adding penicillin to the cultures to prevent bacteria from overgrowing the virus, which had prevented earlier success. But medical diseases like cancer have frustrated doctors, who have learned important information such as the structure of DNA, only to have the answers to effect a cure remain secret. Medicine has been its own enemy by keeping proven treatments from the public because of internal strife within medical organizations, as the successful cataract operation in this story illustrates. Finally, medicine becomes so successful with its discovery of treatments that businessmen and government intrude on its governance, with consequences that change it forever. Die Once Live Forever combines a physician's skill, intellect and knowledge of medicine with wonderful story-telling, and chronicles an exciting time in our history when lives were made better, and longer, by courageous men and women who took big risks.
