Finalist, 2020 Next Generation Indie Awards, Humor
Finalist, 2021 Reader’s Choice Awards, Memoir
The most hilarious heart transplant memoir you’ll read this year!
In late March 2019, high school English teacher and competitive runner Terry Kroenung rode a quick 10 miles on his bike. 10 days later he had an emergency heart transplant. Really. Imagine his surprise. This memoir recounts his experiences with near-fatal pacemaker implantations, defibrillation scorch marks, 7-hour cardiac ablations, surgical staples, and the up-and-down recovery process. Along the way are 6 pregnant nurses, Canadian axe throwers, alien face-huggers, playful chest zippers, demonic urinary catheters, and the most horrifying photo of a dead heart that even the doctors had ever seen.
To keep himself — and his shell-shocked wife, family, and friends — from dwelling on the life-or-death enormity of it all, he kept a diary of everything that happened, no matter how trivial or absurd. His snarky, pun-strewn, geeky commentary on events, as well as more dubiously-termed ‘wit’ that he added after the fact (essentially playing Mystery Science Theatre with himself), make up the book that you’re somehow still reading about.
A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to benefit Donor Alliance and their life-saving work increasing the supply of transplant organs.
People seem to find this disturbing
This page contains the photos, videos, and web links contained in the physical copy of the book. The Kindle version has them embedded.
Links to websites/videos
#1 The Meaning of Life, ‘Live Organ Transplants’
# 3 Return to Me
#4 “Pothole may have saved man’s life by jolting heart back into normal rhythm.”
#7 “U.S. states accuse Teva, other drugmakers, of price-fixing.”
#8 “Why lack of sleep is bad for your heart.”
#9 “Flash fire ignites in man’s chest during emergency heart surgery.”
#12 “Johns Hopkins performs world’s first total penis transplant.“
#13 “Bride walked down aisle by man with her father’s heart.”
#14 “World’s First 3D Printed Hearts and Functional Beating Hearts Grown From Stem Cells.”
Images
Image #’s run left to right, top to bottom. Click for a larger image.
