Sanjay Gupta – next Surgeon General?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a name everyone hears on occasion, but many don’t know who he is or why his name is familiar. No, he’s not one of those radio doctors trying to sell you liposuction, permanent hair removal, or lasik eye surgery. Gupta is a neurosurgeon who doubles as the chief medical correspondent for CNN. Among his public profile duties include reporting medical stories for the network and writing a column for TIME magazine. Why is Gupta relevant today, and why has he been popping up on late night talk shows? Three reasons:
- There are rumors that he is next in line to be Surgeon General. In one interview I saw, Gupta expressed interest in the position, but at a much later time – possibly another 10 years. He feels he only has so many years left to be a top flight surgeon and wants to practice those skills while he still can. Becoming Surgeon General at a young age (Gupta turns 40 tomorrow) would prevent him from doing that.
- Gupta wrote a book currently in wide release called Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles That Are Saving Lives Against All Odds. The book “explores the medical breakthroughs that have brought life back to people who were considered brain dead.”1 Many of the situations involve lowering the injured person’s body temperature to a hypothermic level until proper care can be performed.
- The TV doc is also promoting a new method of CPR which eliminates the mouth to mouth part and focuses solely on chest compressions. A video with Dr. Gupta and Matthew McConaughey is below. Shockingly, the CPR dummy is the only person in the room with a shirt off.
As expected, while many people enjoy Dr. Gupta’s easy to follow explanations of sometimes complicated medical questions, Gupta is not without his critics who believe he has been factually incorrect when stepping beyond his medical background and into the politics of health care. If you take away anything from this post, know that constant chest compressions on a person with no pulse can only help while the professionals are on their way.
Read on:
DetNews.com – CNN’s Sanjay Gupta explores practice of saving lives
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What I find most interesting about this post is that Matthew M has his shirt on. Now that is an interesting Dinner Topic Post!