The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It

The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It

by Jeanne Lenzer
The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It

The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It

by Jeanne Lenzer

Hardcover

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Overview

Did you know...

Medical interventions have become the third leading cause of death in America.

An estimated 10 percent of Americans are implanted with medical devices — like pacemakers, artificial hips, cardiac stents, etc.

The overwhelming majority of high-risk implanted devices have never undergone a single clinical trial.

In The Danger Within Us, award-winning journalist Jeanne Lenzer brings these horrifying statistics to life through the story of one working class man who, after his "cure" nearly kills him, ends up in a battle for justice against the medical establishment.

His crusade leads Lenzer on a journey through the dark underbelly of the medical device industry, a fascinating and disturbing world that hasn't been written about before. What Lenzer exposes will shock readers: rampant corruption, elaborate cover-ups, shameless profiteering, and astonishing lack of oversight, all of which leads to dangerous devices (from artificial hips to pacemakers) going to market and into our bodies.

In the vein of America's Bitter Pill and A Civil Action, The Danger Within Us is a stirring call for reform and a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of American healthcare.

"Before you get anything implanted in your body, read this book."-Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780316343763
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: 12/12/2017
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 733,836
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jeanne Lenzer is an award-winning medical investigative journalist and former Knight Science Journalism fellow. She is a longtime contributor to the The BMJ (formerly, the British Medical Journal), and her articles, reviews and commentary have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic, The New Republic, Discover, Slate, Mother Jones and many other outlets.

Table of Contents

Prologue 3

1 Strange Seizures 9

2 Age of Miracles 18

3 Deadly Devices 44

4 The Man from Cyberonics 68

5 Adverse Events 91

6 No Safety Net 115

7 Regulators in Chains 127

8 The Power of Illusions 151

9 The Quest for Truth 177

10 When Money Talks 201

11 Breakdown 226

12 What Is to Be Done? 260

Resources 284

Acknowledgments 291

Notes 295

Index 317

What People are Saying About This

Marcia Angell

“In this disturbing and riveting book, the indefatigable investigative reporter Jeanne Lenzer tells the story of how millions of Americans are implanted with medical devices with almost no proof that they are safe. Lenzer exposes the web of commercial incentives governing their use, and the refusal of the manufacturers and the FDA to take responsibility when things go wrong.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Th Deborah Blum

"Jeanne Lenzer's incisive investigation of one man's quest for medical justice - and the regulatory failures behind it - is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the risks faced by all of us during routine procedures. And it should be, for all of us, a call to action."

Vinay Prasad

“One of the best books in medicine I have read. A splendid, savage story about the failings of modern device regulation that reads like a mystery, not a work of medical non-fiction: It turns out to be both.”

author of Overtreated Shannon Brownlee

“Jeanne Lenzer has pulled off a brilliant literary hat trick; she has written a page-turning tale of one patient’s odyssey, combined with hard-hitting investigative reporting and a compelling call to arms to fix America’s broken health care system. Before you get anything implanted in your body, read this book.”

Bernard Lown

“Lenzer’s gripping and carefully researched book addresses why America needs a New Deal in health care. This book enlightens, enrages, and will surely help advance that cause.”

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