The Bone Thief bf-5
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Hand surgery, too, has undergone remarkable advances. Toe-to-thumb transplantation, briefly discussed as a way to restore function to Dr. Garcia’s right hand, is a well-established and highly successful way to replace a missing thumb, as Asheville, North Carolina, hand surgeon Bruce Minkin — a former student of Dr. Bill Bass — explained to us in detail over dinner and via many subsequent e-mails. After a teenage patient lost his thumb and two fingers to an explosion, Dr. Minkin grafted one of the boy’s toes onto his mangled hand, creating a thumb that looks and functions almost like the original.
Total hand transplantation is, for now, an inspiring but experimental and very rare procedure. Worldwide, only about forty hand transplants have ever been performed; in the United States, just half a dozen patients have received transplanted hands — and only one has received a bilateral (double) transplant. Those numbers will rise, and the procedure will become more common, if Dr. Linda Cendales has her way. Dr. Cendales — the inspiration for the Emory surgeon we call Dr. Alvarez — is the only surgeon in the United States who has been formally trained in both hand surgery and transplant surgery.
Dr. Cendales helped perform two of the earliest U.S. transplants, including the 1999 transplant that — after more than a decade — remains the world’s most enduringly successful hand transplant. Dr. Cendales is not just a gifted surgeon, she’s also a pioneering researcher. She completed two research fellowships at the National Institutes for Health, focusing on ways to keep patients’ immune systems from rejecting transplants. Now, through a joint appointment at Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta VA Medical Center, Dr. Cendales is building a visionary new hand-transplant program, one that combines surgical expertise with immunological research. During the research for this book, Dr. Cendales graciously invited Jon Jefferson into her operating room to observe hand surgery. Using a curved needle and strong sutures, she carefully stitched together a severed tendon in a man’s hand, and then — peering through a microscope to guide an even more delicate part of the procedure — she snipped and spliced the ends of a damaged nerve together again. After the repairs were done, but before the hand was stitched shut, she flexed and straightened the sleeping patient’s index finger repeatedly, nodding with satisfaction as the reattached tendon slid smoothly within the remarkable cable-and-pulley mechanism of the human hand.
As the first edition of this book goes to press, Dr. Cendales is evaluating transplant candidates — and preparing to test a powerful new antirejection drug that she hopes will revolutionize transplant medicine and bring hope and hands to more real-life patients like our fictional Eddie Garcia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped us make this book, and helped us make it better.
At the Knoxville Police Department, Deputy Chief Gary Price was a helpful and gracious source of information about how KPD would investigate crimes involving dismemberment or mutilation of corpses. Art Bohanan, retired KPD criminalist extraordinaire, remains our favorite fingerprint adviser, patent holder, and real-life fictional character.
The Knoxville Division of the FBI has been remarkably cooperative throughout this series of books. Stacie Bohanan — the Bureau’s media liaison — responded swiftly and kindly to our latest request for help, and Special Agent in Charge Richard Lambert shared generously of his time and expertise in advising us how Dr. Bill Brockton might play a pivotal role in a fictional undercover sting.
This book contains more medical detail than any of our prior books, and we’re grateful to the medical professionals who helped us get things right. The autopsy scene in chapter 15 draws heavily on the advice of Dr. Dan Canale, a Nashville pathologist, whose knowledge is accompanied by equal doses of patience and good humor. Emergency physician Dan Cauble, M.D., graciously reviewed the air-ambulance scene; so did Dr. Jim McLaughlin, an old buddy from way back. At the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Dr. Leonard Hines, Dr. Victor Krylov (a pioneering Russian hand surgeon), and nurse Judy Roark — all of the Simulation Center — offered unique glimpses into the realms of hand surgery and microsurgery. So did Dr. Bruce Minkin, an Asheville hand surgeon who was once one of Bill Bass’s best students…and who opened our eyes to the remarkable capabilities of reconstructive hand surgery, especially toe-to-thumb transplants. And at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Linda Cendales — a nationally prominent hand-transplant surgeon and a world-class human being — shared her inspiring vision of the promising future of hand transplantation.
We could never have embarked on the fictional journey of the Body Farm novels — nor continued it for an additional four books — without the unwavering enthusiasm and able assistance of our literary agent, Giles Anderson. We’re grateful to Giles for getting us the chance to write these books.
We’re also deeply grateful to Harper Collins/William Morrow for making us feel so welcome for six years now. We bid a poignant farewell to our longtime Morrow publisher and friend Lisa Gallagher, and a warm welcome to our new publisher, Liate Stehlik. Magic occurs at Morrow, where our electronic drafts are transformed into edited copy, and edited copy is transformed into printed books — and then, remarkably, those printed books are transformed, when the planets align for us, into bestsellers. We’re delighted to be part of the Harper Collins/William Morrow family — and we’re thrilled to have such a large and supportive extended family of readers. How amazing, that these stories and characters we invent take on a life of their own, finding believers and making friends across the United States and around the world.
A special thanks to Frank Murphy, Knoxville radio personality, comedian, and eagle-eyed reader. Frank joined us in proofreading The Bone Thief, and caught several errors that would otherwise have slipped through the cracks. Gracias, Frank.
Last but best, our families and friends remain wondrous sources of support, encouragement, and inspiration. To one and all, thanks evermore.
— Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass
About the Author
Jefferson Bass is the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility — the Body Farm — a quarter century ago. He is the author or coauthor of more than two hundred scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career at the Body Farm, Death’s Acre. Dr. Bass is also a dedicated teacher, honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Jon Jefferson is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and broadcast on National Public Radio. The coauthor of Death’s Acre, he is also the writer and producer of two highly rated National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.
www.JeffersonBass.com
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