Paul Zoll MD; The Pioneer Whose Discoveries Prevent Sudden Death

Paul Zoll MD is an engaging account of the life and work of Dr. Paul M. Zoll, the physician and medical researcher behind the treatments and techniques we use today to save victims of heart attacks and to prevent premature deaths from other forms of heart failure. The book tells how one man's compassion, insight, intelligence and perseverance solved medical mysteries that had plagued people through the ages. The biography also shows the human dimensions of Dr. Zoll, including his childhood, education, military service, family relationships, recreational interests and social associations throughout his life, from 1911 to 1999. But the book's primary topic is Dr. Zoll's contributions to medicine, especially his breakthroughs in cardiac care and his development of closed-chest pacemakers and defibrillators, implantable pacemakers and heart monitors. The biography positions Zoll as a leading pioneer in cardiac care, whose innovations and ideas changed the field. Through carefully documented historical analysis, the book shows how Dr. Zoll was the creator and the first physician to successfully employ devices that are the fore bearers of life-saving implements commonly used today.



The author, Dr. Stafford I. Cohen, was a medical resident under Dr. Zoll and, later, a colleague at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. His book is the first full-length biography of Dr. Zoll. It strives for historical accuracy and gives a fair and balanced assessment of Zoll's life and work. Paul Zoll MD firmly establish Paul M. Zoll as a first-in-the-world innovator whose treatments and inventions make him the father of modern electrocardiac therapy - a man to whom we owe a great deal today.