A Map of the Child: A Pediatrician's Tour of the Body

During his residency at the legendary Children's Hospital in Boston, a young doctor explores the inner workings of a child's body

Dr. Darshak Sanghavi has learned to read the body-to recognize patterns of sickness, apply modern medical technology when warranted, and to offer comfort through human contact, all vital skills when working with patients who are often too young or too ill to speak. In this compelling book, he shares his experiences by taking the reader on a dramatic tour of a child's eight vital organs, beginning with the lungs and proceeding through the heart, blood, bones, brain, skin, gonads, and gut.

Along the way, we meet children and families in extraordinary circumstances, such as a premature baby named Adam Flax who was born with undeveloped lungs, a Japanese infant with a blockage in his heart, a young girl who sees ghosts and grows too fast, a teenage boy with a positive pregnancy test, and a young girl who keeps losing weight despite her voracious appetite. Using such stories as windows on the wonders and tragedies of human biology, the author examines the development and inner workings of children's bodies from birth through adolescence.

In a deeply personal narrative, Sanghavi comes to terms with the great advances and continued limitations of modern medicine, even as he provides a richly detailed-and humanized-portrait of how the pediatric body functions in sickness and health.