Mimi Swartz, “Ticker”

In Conversation with Michael Jacobs, Former Editor, Atlanta Jewish Times

Until post WWII, heart surgery did not exist. Ticker provides a riveting history of the pioneers who gave their all to the courageous process of cutting into the only organ humans cannot live without. Mimi Swartz, renowned journalist and Texas Monthly Editor, chronicles heart surgeons Michael DeBakey and Denton Coole, whose feud dominated the dramatic beginnings of heart surgery; Christian Barnaard, who changed the world overnight by performing the first heart transplant; and inventor Robert Jarvik, whose artificial heart made patient Barney Clark a worldwide symbol of both the brilliant promise of technology and the devastating evils of experimentation run amok. Part investigative journalism, part medical mystery, Ticker is a dazzling story of modern innovation, recounting 50 years of false starts, abysmal failures and miraculous triumphs.