Host by Robin Cook explores medical/biotech ethical issues intertwined
with a thrilling storyline. This book mirrors his best-selling
1977 novel Coma that spurred him to be known as the master
of medical thrillers. Now over thirty books later this ophthalmologist
turned writer expands on the issues of greed and medicine.
The plot begins with Carl Vandermeer, a healthy Millennial,
undergoing a routine operation to repair his knee. Yet, something
goes terribly wrong with the anesthesia, leaving Carl in a
vegetative state with no brain activity. His girlfriend, Lynn
Peirce, a fourth-year medical student at South Carolina’s
Mason-Dixon University, where Carl’s operation took
place, believes something has gone awry. She enlists her good
friend, Michael Pender, also a fourth year medical student,
to find out why this hospital, and others associated with
Sentinel Healthcare, have high rates of unexplained anesthetic
complications. This is in addition to patients entering the
hospital with one complaint, but leaving with a more serious
medical issue. Lynn and Michael must find answers while fighting
the shadowy forces that are attempting to thwart their efforts.
Besides getting an action packed story readers learn about
the dangers regarding healthcare. The theme of the book explains
how both pharmaceutical companies and hospital corporations
are basically robbing patients legally. In this case a conspiracy
exists between Mason-Dixon University, Shapiro Institute,
and Sidereal Pharmaceuticals. A powerful quote shows the pharmaceutical
industry’s hypocrisy, “They want people to think
their motivation is for the public good when they are, in
fact, poster boys for capitalism run amok...The reality is
that they spend more money on advertising prescription drugs
directly to the pubic than they spend on research.”
Cook commented, “Once I began medical school, I realized
the patient was not the center of things; the doctor and the
medical profession were. I thought, 'Someday, I'm going to
write about the way it really is.' I became a writer to show
the problems with healthcare. I wanted to write about medicine
that was closer to the truth. For this book I wanted to point
out how the various stockholders are taking advantage of all
of us. We are spending way too much on healthcare with very
mediocre results. Hospitals are unsafe, just look at the statistics
I quote in my book, which are all true. The only people now
disenfranchised and out of the system are the patients and
doctors. The only way the system can change is the people
must demand change, which is where my books come in, as warnings.”
As with all of Cook’s books he lends a level of authenticity
by including medical procedures and research. In Host he details
with some exaggeration how biologics works. This new product
of the pharmaceutical companies is not based on drugs being
made with chemicals but with antibodies. Cook explained, “They
are derived from mouse cells that have been further altered
with great effort to make them invisible to the human immune
system. What they are doing in Host would make them all human.
The mystery comes in when the hospital conspires to create
guinea pigs by putting patients in a vegetarian state. I did
not tie everything up in a bow because I want readers to understand
how the pharmaceutical companies and hospital corporations
are still using patients for their own benefit, both monetarily
and for research purposes.”
He also gave a heads up about his next projects. The book
will delve into social media and medicine. It takes place
in Boston, which means both Lynn and Michael might be returning.
Cook is also hoping to make a movie after forming his own
production company. He did this because he wants control over
his own storyline based on his vision, not the director’s.
Host is a very suspenseful novel that is also a warning
to all readers. They begin to understand that those in charge
of healthcare have no restrictions and are never transparent.
Since healthcare will affect everyone people need to read
this informative, action-packed page-turner.
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