The Perfect Predator

Starred review from February 11, 2019
Epidemiologist Strathdee and psychiatrist Patterson are vacationing in Egypt in 2015 at the onset of this gripping and intriguing medical thriller. After crawling into a pyramid, Patterson falls violently ill. Strathdee, his wife, initially attributes his sickness to food poisoning, but doctors in an Egyptian clinic soon diagnose acute pancreatitis, later found to be complicated by a football-sized pseudocyst infected with an antibiotic-resistant superbug. Eventually medivaced home to San Diego, Patterson is hospitalized while Strathdee balances her role as a loving caregiver with a “pit bull scientist’s” determination to save her 69-year-old husband. He suffers several bouts of septic shock, goes into coma, and is placed on a ventilator. With the support of a global team of doctors and researchers, Strathdee pursues a nearly forgotten century-old treatment called phage therapy, which employs a virus administered through drains and IV, “the perfect predator,” to wage battle against the menacing bacteria. After eight weeks of phage therapy and a total of nine months in the hospital, Patterson is discharged to his home, where he continues to improve. Along with the chronicle of Patterson’s struggle is the authors’ incisive commentary on the alarming superbug problem worldwide, which they assert is perhaps even more concerning to the human race than climate change. This page-turner of a couple’s determination to survive also serves as a dire warning regarding the consequences of the overuse of antibiotics. Agent: Gail Ross, the Ross Yoon Agency.

March 15, 2019
A real-life medical thriller that proves when science, medicine, and perseverance align, "the impossible becomes possible."In 2015, infectious disease epidemiologist Strathdee (Global Health Sciences/Univ. of California, San Diego School of Medicine) and her husband, Patterson, a psychologist, were on vacation in Egypt when he was infected with one of the deadliest antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the planet. In a few terrifying days, his health deteriorated to the point where it was uncertain whether modern medicine could help him. As Strathdee writes, "Tom was quickly becoming the poster child for the dystopian future of the post-antibiotic age." In this fast-paced memoir, the authors describe how Strathdee scoured scientific history and identified an unconventional cure: phage therapy, in which a virus is utilized as a bacterial killer. The catch was that phage therapy hadn't been used in the United States in nearly a century, and no one knew how to find the right virus, purify it to meet FDA standards, and administer it safely. Miraculously, Strathdee overcame every one of these obstacles with the help of kindhearted and intrepid researchers from around the world. Despite the potential heartbreak that lurks within every chapter, the writing is always infused with humor, hope, and intelligence, and the couple's remarkable story is grounded in real-life details that bring readers directly into their world: desperate late-night emails to people who might help, on-the-fly Googling of critical care lingo, impromptu dance parties at Tom's bedside. The book also includes dark, surreal poetic interludes from Patterson's perspective, providing a glimpse into the patient's mindset, an interesting contrast to the chronicle of his wife's relentless effort to save him.Strathdee's recognition as one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care is unquestionably well-deserved; as this page-turning book shows, she is a hero whose insight and determination could serve as models to help save many more lives.

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April 15, 2019
In this engrossing medical memoir, husband-and-wife scientists at the University of California in San Diego share the story of their battle with an antibiotic-resistant bug. During a typical-for-them jaunt to the pyramids in Egypt, Patterson comes down with what at first seems like a terrible case of food poisoning. No such luck. Doctors diagnose him with gallstone pancreatitis compounded by a superbug. Epidemiologist Strathdee overhears a physician colleague say, Has anyone told Steff that her husband is going to die? The once-strapping, 6-foot-5 Patterson, a psychologist, loses 100 pounds, ends up on dialysis, and only survives because his persistent, bold wife, colleagues and scientists at other universities, and even the U.S. Navy try a novel approach: They give him a virus (aka the perfect predator) that they hope will devour and kill the lethal bacteria, Pac-Man style. This gamble with so-called phage therapy pays off. Researchers, including Strathdee, are looking at how the approach may rescue many more patients. Meanwhile, this winning couple, who spent much of their careers helping HIV-positive people, are appreciating life after Patterson's near-death experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)