{{Short description|Indian-American neurosurgeon and writer (1977–2015)}} {{Infobox medical person |name=Paul Kalanithi |image= |education=Stanford University (BA, MA)<br />Darwin College, Cambridge (M.Phil)<br />Yale Medical School (MD) |occupation={{hlist|Neurosurgeon|Writer}} |work_institution=Stanford University School of Medicine |birth_date=April 1, 1977 |death_date={{death date and age|2015|3|9|1977|4|1}} |spouse=Lucy Goddard |children=1 }}
'''Paul Sudhir Arul Kalanithi''' (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was an American neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and writer. His book ''When Breath Becomes Air'' is a memoir about his life and illness with stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House in January 2016.<ref name= "maslin">{{cite news|last1=Maslin|first1=Janet|title=Review: In 'When Breath Becomes Air,' Dr. Paul Kalanithi Confronts an Early Death|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/books/review-in-when-breath-becomes-air-dr-paul-kalanithi-confronts-an-early-death.html |url-status= live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111213441/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/books/review-in-when-breath-becomes-air-dr-paul-kalanithi-confronts-an-early-death.html|archive-date=11 January 2022|work=New York Times|date= 6 January 2016 |access-date=16 January 2016}}</ref> It was on ''The New York Times'' Non-Fiction Best Seller list for multiple weeks.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2016-03-20/combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction/list.html | title=Print and E-book Nonfiction | newspaper=New York Times | access-date=10 March 2016}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Paul Kalanithi was born on April 1, 1977, and lived in Westchester, New York. He was born to a Christian family hailing from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, India. Kalanithi had two brothers, Jeevan and Suman; Jeevan is a computer/robotics engineer and Suman is a neurologist. The family moved from Bronxville, New York, to Kingman, Arizona, when Kalanithi was 10. Kalanithi attended Kingman High School, where he graduated as valedictorian.<ref name= kim>{{cite web|last1=Steele|first1=Kim|title=Obituary: Paul Kalanithi|url=http://kdminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=167&subsectionID=468&articleID=65141|publisher=Daily Miner|access-date=17 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723032338/http://kdminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=167&subsectionID=468&articleID=65141|archive-date=23 July 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Spector"/>
Kalanithi attended Stanford University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts in English literature and a Bachelor of Arts in human biology in 2000.<ref name="Spector">{{cite web|url=https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/03/stanford-neurosurgeon-writer-paul-kalanithi-dies-at-37.html|title=Paul Kalanithi, writer and neurosurgeon, dies at 37|first=Rosanne|last=Spector|date=11 March 2015|work= Stanford Medicine News|publisher=Stanford University School of Medicine}}</ref><ref name= "Fox"/> After Stanford, he attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied at Darwin College and graduated with a Master of Philosophy in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.<ref name="Fox"/> Although he initially considered pursuing a Ph.D. in English Literature, Kalanithi then attended the Yale School of Medicine, where he graduated in 2007 ''cum laude'', winning the Dr. Louis H. Nahum Prize for his research on Tourette's syndrome.<ref name=the>{{cite web|last1= Reisz|first1=Matthew|title=Paul Kalanithi, 1977–2015|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/people/obituaries/paul-kalanithi-1977-2015/2019378.article| work = Times Higher education|access-date=16 January 2016|date=April 2015}}</ref> He was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society.<ref name="Fox"/>
At Yale, Kalanithi met fellow medical student Lucy Goddard, who would become his wife.<ref name= "Spector"/>
==Career== After graduating from medical school, Kalanithi returned to Stanford to complete his residency training in neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine.<ref name="Spector"/><ref name="Fox"/>
In May 2013, Kalanithi was diagnosed with metastatic stage IV non-small-cell EGFR-positive lung cancer.<ref name="Spector"/>{{Sfn | Kalanithi | 2016a}} He died on March 9, 2015, aged 37.<ref name="Spector"/>
==Personal life== Kalanithi married Lucy (née Goddard), with whom he had a daughter in 2014, Elizabeth Acadia ("Cady").<ref name="Fox"/><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/14/lucy-kalanithi-paul-when-breath-becomes-air-interview-death|title=Lucy Kalanithi: "Paul's view was that life wasn't about avoiding suffering"|first=Lisa|last=O'Kelly|date= 14 February 2016 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Lucy is an associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and wrote the epilogue to ''When Breath Becomes Air''.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/lucy-kalanithi | title= CAP Profile | publisher = Stanford Medicine}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Smith |first1= Duncan |title= Lucy Kalanithi: Work, life, grief, love |journal= BMJ |date=25 April 2018 |article-number =k1220 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.k1220 |s2cid= 13850394 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/my-marriage-didnt-end-when-i-became-a-widow/?_r=0 |title= My Marriage Didn't End When I Became a Widow |first= Lucy |last=Kalanithi|date=6 January 2016|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/lucy-kalanithi |title= Lucy Kalanithi |publisher= Stanford University School of Medicine}}</ref> Lucy is the twin sister of Joanna Goddard of the blog A Cup of Jo. Lucy has been in a relationship with North Carolina lawyer John Duberstein since Kalanithi's death. Duberstein's wife Nina Riggs was a poet who wrote a memoir as she succumbed to cancer. Lucy had been in touch with Nina and even wrote a blurb for Nina's book; after Nina's death John reached out to Lucy for advice on how to grieve.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Goddard |first= Joanna|date= 2018-01-03 |title=An Update on My Twin Sister |url= https://cupofjo.com/2018/01/lucy-kalanithi-john-duberstein/ |access-date= 2021-01-22 |website= A Cup of Jo |language= en-US}}</ref>
Although Kalanithi was raised in a devout Christian family, he turned away from the faith in his teens and twenties in favor of other ideas.<ref name= "Fox">{{cite web |url= https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/paul-kalanithi-why-i-gave-up-on-atheism/|title=Paul Kalanithi: Why I gave up on atheism|first=Paul|last=Kalanithi|date=27 May 2016 |work= Fox News |publisher=Fox News Network}}</ref> However, he retained "the central values of Christianity — sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness" and returned to Christianity later in his life.<ref name="Fox"/> In his book, he writes that if he had been more religious in his youth, he would have become a pastor.{{Refn | {{Citation | title = When breath becomes air | type = review | work = Christianity today | date = May 2026 | last = Billings | first = J Todd | url = https://jtoddbillings.com/2016/05/when-breath-becomes-air-christianity-today-review/}}}}
He never smoked.<ref name="Br2002">{{cite web |last1=Br |first1=Michelle |title=For this doctor couple, the Super Bowl was about way more than football |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118182600/https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/02/12/for-this-doctor-couple-the-super-bowl-was-about-way-more-than-football/ |archive-date=18 January 2022 |publisher=Stanford |url=https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/02/12/for-this-doctor-couple-the-super-bowl-was-about-way-more-than-football/ |website=Scope |access-date=16 January 2022 |date=12 February 2015 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
==Bibliography==
===Non-fiction books=== * ''When Breath Becomes Air''<ref name=NYT/>
===Essays=== * "How Long Have I Got Left?" for ''The New York Times''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/sunday/how-long-have-i-got-left.html|title= How Long Have I Got Left?|last=Kalanithi|first=Paul|date=2014-01-24|newspaper=The New York Times|issn= 0362-4331 |access-date=2016-12-27}}</ref> * "Before I go: Time warps for a young surgeon with metastatic lung cancer" for ''Stanford Medicine Magazine''<ref name="med">{{cite web|last1= Kalanithi|first1=Paul|title=Before I Go |date= 23 February 2015 |url=http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2015spring/before-i-go.html|publisher= Stanford Medicine Magazine|access-date=17 January 2016}}</ref> * {{Cite news | title = My Last Day as a Surgeon|url = http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/my-last-day-as-a-surgeon|newspaper = The New Yorker |date = 2016-01-11|access-date = 2016-02-22 | year = 2016a |issn = 0028-792X|first = Paul|last = Kalanithi}} * "Terra Incognita: Remembering Sherwin Nuland" for ''The Paris Review''<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/03/13/terra-incognita/ |title=Remembering Sherwin B. Nuland, the author of How We Die|last=Kalanithi|first=Paul|website= The Paris review |access-date=2016-12-27|date=2014-03-13}}</ref>
===Scholarly articles=== ''Only first-authored articles are listed below'' * O'Shea DJ*, Kalanithi P*, Ferenczi EA*, Hsueh B, Chandrasekaran C, Goo W, Diester I, Ramakrishnan C, Kaufman MT, Ryu SI, Yeom KW, Deisseroth K, Shenoy KV. ''Scientific Reports''. 2018 Apr 30;8(1):6775. {{doi|10.1038/s41598-018-24362-7}}.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=O'Shea|first1=Daniel J.|last2= Kalanithi |first2=Paul|last3=Ferenczi|first3=Emily A.|last4=Hsueh|first4=Brian|last5=Chandrasekaran|first5=Chandramouli|last6=Goo|first6=Werapong|last7= Diester|first7=Ilka|last8=Ramakrishnan|first8=Charu|last9=Kaufman|first9=Matthew T.|date=2018-04-30|title=Development of an optogenetic toolkit for neural circuit dissection in squirrel monkeys|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=8|issue=1|page=6775|doi=10.1038/s41598-018-24362-7|issn=2045-2322|pmc=5928036|pmid=29712920|bibcode=2018NatSR...8.6775O}}</ref> *Co-first author. * {{cite journal|pmid= 23551457|year= 2014|last1= Kalanithi|first1= P. S.|title= Rehospitalization and emergency department use rates before and after vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy: Use of state databases to provide longitudinal data across multiple clinical settings|journal= Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface|volume= 17|issue= 1|pages= 60–4; discussion 64–5|last2= Arrigo|first2= R. T.|last3= Tran|first3= P|last4= Gephart|first4= M. H.|last5= Shuer|first5= L|last6= Fisher|first6= R|last7= Boakye|first7= M|doi= 10.1111/ner.12051|s2cid= 46274667}} * {{cite book|pmid= 23206683|year= 2012|last1= Kalanithi|first1= P. S.|title= Emerging Horizons in Neuromodulation – New Frontiers in Brain and Spine Stimulation|volume= 107|pages= 185–205 |last2= Henderson|first2= J. M.|doi= 10.1016/B978-0-12-404706-8.00010-3|chapter= Optogenetic Neuromodulation|series= International Review of Neurobiology|isbn= 978-0-12-404706-8}} * {{cite journal|pmid= 22037526|year= 2012|last1= Kalanithi|first1= P. A.|title= Morbid obesity increases cost and complication rates in spinal arthrodesis|journal= Spine|volume= 37 |issue= 11|pages= 982–8|last2= Arrigo|first2= R|last3= Boakye|first3= M|doi= 10.1097/BRS.0b013e31823bbeef|s2cid= 15167313}} * {{cite journal|pmid= 21819196|year= 2011|last1= Kalanithi|first1= P|title= Hospital costs, incidence, and inhospital mortality rates of traumatic subdural hematoma in the United States|journal= Journal of Neurosurgery|volume= 115|issue= 5|pages= 1013–8|last2= Schubert|first2= R. D.|last3= Lad|first3= S. P.|last4= Harris|first4= O. A.|last5= Boakye|first5= M|doi= 10.3171/2011.6.JNS101989}} * {{cite journal|pmid= 19652635 |vauthors=Kalanithi PS, Patil CG, Boakye M |title=National complication rates and disposition after posterior lumbar fusion for acquired spondylolisthesis |journal=Spine |year=2009 |volume=34 |issue=18 |pages=1963–9 |doi=10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181ae2243|s2cid=42579192 }} * {{cite journal|title=Altered parvalbumin-positive neuron distribution in basal ganglia of individuals with Tourette syndrome |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=102 |issue=37 |pages=13307–12 |year=2005 |pmid=16131542|pmc=1201574 |last1=Kalanithi |first1=P. S. |last2=Zheng |first2=W |last3=Kataoka |first3=Y |last4=Difiglia |first4=M |last5= Grantz |first5=H |last6=Saper |first6=C. B. |last7=Schwartz |first7=M. L. |last8= Leckman |first8=J. F. |last9=Vaccarino |first9=F. M. |doi=10.1073/pnas.0502624102 |bibcode=2005PNAS..10213307K |doi-access=free }} father. name.
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== * {{wikiquote-inline}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalanithi, Paul}} Category:1977 births Category:2015 deaths Category:21st-century American writers Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Alumni of Darwin College, Cambridge Category:American male writers of Indian descent Category:American neuroscientists Category:American neurosurgeons Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:People from Kingman, Arizona Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Writers from Arizona Category:Yale School of Medicine alumni Category:American Christians