26
Sep
When Breath Becomes Air
When there’s no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.
Paul Kalanithi graduated from Stanford with a BA and an MA in English Literature and a BA in Biology. He also earned a MPhil in history and philosophy of science and medicine from Cambridge before attending and graduating from the Yale School of Medicine. He returned to Stanford to do an 8-year residency in neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. In his seventh year of residency in May, 2013, 36-year old Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer – an illness that rarely strikes young men (he notes that only 0.0012 percent of 36-year olds get lung cancer). Read more 
