Indian-American neurosurgeon and writer (1977–2015)
Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was an American
neurosurgeon and writer. His book
When Breath Becomes Air is a
memoir about his life and illness with stage IV
metastatic
lung cancer . It was posthumously published by
Random House in January 2016.
[1] It was on
The New York Times
Non-Fiction Best Seller list for multiple weeks.
[2]
Early life and education
Paul Kalanithi was born on April 1, 1977, and lived in
Westchester, New York . He was born to a Christian family hailing from
Tamil Nadu and
Andhra Pradesh , India. Kalanithi had two brothers, Jeevan and Suman; Jeevan is a
computer /
robotics engineer and Suman is a neurologist. The family moved from
Bronxville, New York , to
Kingman, Arizona , when Kalanithi was 10. Kalanithi attended
Kingman High School , where he graduated as
valedictorian .
[3]
[4]
Kalanithi attended
Stanford University , where he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts and a
Master of Arts in
English literature and a
Bachelor of Science in
human biology in 2000.
[4]
[5] After Stanford, he attended the
University of Cambridge , where he studied at
Darwin College and graduated with a Master of Philosophy in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.
[5] Although he initially considered pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature, Kalanithi then attended the
Yale School of Medicine , where he graduated in 2007
cum laude , winning the Dr. Louis H. Nahum Prize for his research on
Tourette’s syndrome .
[6] He was inducted into the
Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.
[5]
At Yale, Kalanithi met fellow medical student Lucy Goddard, who would become his wife.
[4]
Career
After graduating from medical school, Kalanithi returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in
neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at
Stanford University School of Medicine .
[4]
[5]
In May 2013, Kalanithi was diagnosed with metastatic
stage IV non-small-cell
EGFR -positive
lung cancer .
[4]
[7] He died on March 9, 2015, aged 37.
[4]
Personal life
Kalanithi was married to Lucy (née Goddard), with whom he had a daughter in 2014, Elizabeth Acadia ("Cady").
[5]
[8] Lucy is an
associate professor at
Stanford University School of Medicine and wrote the epilogue to When Breath Becomes Air .
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12] She is the twin sister of Joanna Goddard of the blog
A Cup of Jo .
[13]
Although Kalanithi was raised in a devout
Christian family, he turned away from the faith in his teens and twenties in favor of other ideas.
[5] However, he retained "the central values of Christianity — sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness" and returned to Christianity later in his life. In his book, he writes that if he had been more religious in his youth, he would have become a pastor.
[5]
He never smoked.
[14]
Bibliography
Non-fiction books
Essays
Scholarly articles
Only
first-authored articles are listed below
O'Shea DJ*, Kalanithi P*, Ferenczi EA*, Hsueh B, Chandrasekaran C, Goo W, Diester I, Ramakrishnan C, Kaufman MT, Ryu SI, Yeom KW, Deisseroth K, Shenoy KV. Scientific Reports . 2018 Apr 30;8(1):6775.
doi :
10.1038/s41598-018-24362-7 .
[19] *Co-first author.
Kalanithi, P. S.; Arrigo, R. T.; Tran, P; Gephart, M. H.; Shuer, L; Fisher, R; Boakye, M (2014). "Rehospitalization and emergency department use rates before and after vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy: Use of state databases to provide longitudinal data across multiple clinical settings". Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface . 17 (1): 60–4, discussion 64–5.
doi :
10.1111/ner.12051 .
PMID
23551457 .
S2CID
46274667 .
Kalanithi, P. S.; Henderson, J. M. (2012). "Optogenetic Neuromodulation". Emerging Horizons in Neuromodulation – New Frontiers in Brain and Spine Stimulation . International Review of Neurobiology. Vol. 107. pp. 185–205.
doi :
10.1016/B978-0-12-404706-8.00010-3 .
ISBN
9780124047068 .
PMID
23206683 .
Kalanithi, P. A.; Arrigo, R; Boakye, M (2012). "Morbid obesity increases cost and complication rates in spinal arthrodesis". Spine . 37 (11): 982–8.
doi :
10.1097/BRS.0b013e31823bbeef .
PMID
22037526 .
S2CID
15167313 .
Kalanithi, P; Schubert, R. D.; Lad, S. P.; Harris, O. A.; Boakye, M (2011). "Hospital costs, incidence, and inhospital mortality rates of traumatic subdural hematoma in the United States". Journal of Neurosurgery . 115 (5): 1013–8.
doi :
10.3171/2011.6.JNS101989 .
PMID
21819196 .
Kalanithi PS, Patil CG, Boakye M (2009). "National complication rates and disposition after posterior lumbar fusion for acquired spondylolisthesis". Spine . 34 (18): 1963–9.
doi :
10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181ae2243 .
PMID
19652635 .
S2CID
42579192 .
Kalanithi, P. S.; Zheng, W; Kataoka, Y; Difiglia, M; Grantz, H; Saper, C. B.; Schwartz, M. L.; Leckman, J. F.; Vaccarino, F. M. (2005).
"Altered parvalbumin-positive neuron distribution in basal ganglia of individuals with Tourette syndrome" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 102 (37): 13307–12.
Bibcode :
2005PNAS..10213307K .
doi :
10.1073/pnas.0502624102 .
PMC
1201574 .
PMID
16131542 . father. name.
References
^ Maslin, Janet (6 January 2016).
"Review: In 'When Breath Becomes Air,' Dr. Paul Kalanithi Confronts an Early Death" . New York Times .
Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
^
a
b
"Print and E-book Nonfiction" .
New York Times . Retrieved 10 March 2016 .
^ Steele, Kim.
"Obituary: Paul Kalanithi" . Daily Miner. Archived from
the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016 .
^
a
b
c
d
e
f Spector, Rosanne (11 March 2015).
"Paul Kalanithi, writer and neurosurgeon, dies at 37" . Stanford Medicine News . Stanford University School of Medicine.
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g Kalanithi, Paul (27 May 2016).
"Paul Kalanithi: Why I gave up on atheism" . Fox News . Fox News Network.
^ Reisz, Matthew (April 2015).
"Paul Kalanithi, 1977–2015" . Times Higher education. Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
^ Kalanithi, Paul (11 January 2016).
"My Last Day as a Surgeon" . New Yorker. Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
^ O'Kelly, Lisa (14 February 2016).
"Lucy Kalanithi: "Paul's view was that life wasn't about avoiding suffering" " . The Guardian .
^
"CAP Profile" .
^ Smith, Duncan (25 April 2018). "Lucy Kalanithi: Work, life, grief, love". BMJ : k1220.
doi :
10.1136/bmj.k1220 .
S2CID
13850394 .
^ Kalanithi, Lucy (6 January 2016).
"My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow" . The New York Times .
^ Stanford University School of Medicine.
"Lucy Kalanithi" . Stanford University School of Medicine.
^ Goddard, Joanna (2018-01-03).
"An Update on My Twin Sister" . A Cup of Jo . Retrieved 2021-01-22 .
^ Br, Michelle (12 February 2015).
"For this doctor couple, the Super Bowl was about way more than football" . Scope . Retrieved 16 January 2022 .
^ Kalanithi, Paul (2014-01-24).
"How Long Have I Got Left?" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-12-27 .
^ Kalanithi, Paul (23 February 2015).
"Before I Go" . Stanford Medicine Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2016 .
^ Kalanithi, Paul (2016-01-11).
"My Last Day as a Surgeon" . The New Yorker .
ISSN
0028-792X . Retrieved 2016-02-22 .
^ Kalanithi, Paul (2014-03-13).
"Remembering Sherwin B. Nuland, the author of How We Die" . www.theparisreview.org . Retrieved 2016-12-27 .
^ O'Shea, Daniel J.; Kalanithi, Paul; Ferenczi, Emily A.; Hsueh, Brian; Chandrasekaran, Chandramouli; Goo, Werapong; Diester, Ilka; Ramakrishnan, Charu; Kaufman, Matthew T. (2018-04-30).
"Development of an optogenetic toolkit for neural circuit dissection in squirrel monkeys" . Scientific Reports . 8 (1): 6775.
Bibcode :
2018NatSR...8.6775O .
doi :
10.1038/s41598-018-24362-7 .
ISSN
2045-2322 .
PMC
5928036 .
PMID
29712920 .
External links
International National Other