Bats Could Be Superior Beings
Feared for carrying rabies, bats get a bad rap as scary Halloween symbols. The Tale of a Transplanted Heart gives readers a new perspective on bats, as it tells the story of an esteemed bat researcher whose character ominously changes after his life is saved by a heart transplant.
The heart recipient in this novel studies bats because they possess disease-defying superpowers. “One of every five mammals on Earth is a bat.” Relative to size, they have the greatest longevity of any mammal. Bats are the only mammals capable of surviving the rabies virus, which invariably kills any unvaccinated human, dog, cat, or other mammal it infects.
Even when living intimately with millions of their friends, bats rarely succumb to the viruses they harbor. Consequently, viruses love bats. “The only mammals to have mastered flight,” migrating bats can readily transport viruses far and wide. In addition to highlighting their superior immune defenses, this novel portrays bats as intelligent, linguistic, musical, peaceful, and essential to agriculture and forestry for insect control and pollination.
Beyond the supremacy of bats, The Tale of a Transplanted Heart explores the phenomenon of “cellular memory.” As transplant medicine has grown, increasing numbers of organ recipients are reporting the development of emotions and preferences that are not their own. After the dedicated scientist in this novel exhibits disturbing personality changes following his transplant, his physician wife can barely recognize the person her husband has become. His associates start to fear his capacity to manipulate dangerous viruses. Could the heart of an angry donor have turned him into a bioterrorist?
Doctor Hurwitz’s fifth medical fiction pulls a curtain back on infectious disease research, whereby scientists can alter the DNA of lethal germs. Research labs can also be involved in vicious competition for funding, investor pressure to produce the next blockbuster vaccine or drug, lab accidents, and the potential creation of biologic weaponry. This novel provokes the question: did COVID arise spontaneously in nature, or was it a “designer virus” that escaped from a lab?
The Tale of a Transplanted Heart also whips up grievances about the business takeover of American health care. Set in a struggling rural hospital that was recently acquired by a for-profit corporation, the bat researcher’s wife and her colleagues become embroiled in conflict with the hospital’s new management. These doctors fear for their patients’ lives when administrators ignore the rising incidence of mysterious infections.
This novel challenges the reader to consider the life and death issues that relate to organ donation. It asks: does your “soul” survive when your heart is beating in someone else’s body? Is organ donation a path to immortality? It also asks: why don’t bats get cancer or diabetes or many other diseases, and what can they teach humans about how to have longer, healthier lives?
The Tale of a Transplanted Heart is available in paperback and kindle editions with reading samples, along with other books by Beverly Hurwitz M.D. at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=books+by+beverly+hurwitz
