God Spare Life - Softcover

Dr. Claudia Lynn Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977729788 ISBN 13: 9780977729784

Publisher: WME Books, 2007

Synopsis

"My life can be perceived as a series of three major storms," writes Dr. Thomas. After growing up in NYC in the 50s and 60s, she encountered racial tensions at Vassar College and helped lead a building takeover in the search for social justice. Chapter 3, Takeover, has been included in the online history on the Vassar website. From there she overcame biases to become the first African American woman orthopaedic surgeon in the U.S., only to experience the Category 5 Hurricane Hugo while practicing on the island of St. Thomas in 1989. The book's title comes from the common farewell used on the island. But the "storm" she calls a hurricane in Part III was her arduous struggle with kidney cancer. Her mother's constant love and personal care, along with her sister's gift of a kidney transplant and their enduring faith, enabled her to triumph over the disease. Throughout the book run themes of family love and support, hard work and determination, and sustaining faith -- and how these can enable anyone to overcome daunting challenges to achieve spectacular success.

About this title

About the Author:

The book tells of her life through the mid-1990s, but since her dramatic triumph over kidney cancer, Dr. Thomas has returned to practice medicine in Florida and teaching on the Johns Hopkins faculty in Baltimore. Among her activities, she finds joy in helping young people overcome obstacles and achieve success.

Review:

"Claudia Thomas has written a fascinating book about her life. She provides a moving account of those days and hours when thirty-four African American women students took over the Vassar College administration building to call attention to their unfulfilled academic needs. Her years at Johns Hopkins, where she practiced orthopedic surgery, a first for a Black woman, continue the story of her very courageous life and accomplishments." --Elizabeth Daniels, Vassar College Historian

"In her book, God Spare Life, Dr. Claudia Thomas has presented the inspiring journey of the first African American female to become an orthopedic surgeon in this country. I have known Dr. Thomas for many of those years, and she has been a person who knows how to get things done. She has been faced by enormous obstacles, but has never allowed those to stop her from making significant contributions to the medical field and to society at large. Her example is one to be emulated not only by African American women, but by all people who want to achieve success in life." --Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

"Woven into this transplant story is a love story worthy of a different kind of novel, but this one is her real life ... We live through a life struggle that will serve as an inspiration to anyone facing their own health (and life) challenges. A key message that comes out of this reading is how important the foundation our upbringing is to our future lives (bless those mothers), and, especially in dealing with a life saving transplant, the role our caregivers play even when all else seems to fail ... Dr. Thomas book is an enjoyable read written by a loving and gifted doctor ..." --Jim Gleason, heart transplant recipient, excerpts from a full review on the National Kidney Foundation website

About this edition

• Publisher: WME Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0977729788
• ISBN 13: 9780977729784
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Number of pages: 360