From Library Journal
It is everyone's worst nightmare: an inoperable brain tumor, a dire prognosis. At this point, one might naturally give up in despair and compose oneself for the end as best one could. But not Smith (coauthor, with partner Naifeh, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jackson Pollock). From the December day in 1986 when Smith received the shattering diagnosis, the reader is taken on his harrowing quest to beat the odds. First there are the external obstacles intrinsic to medicine and medical economics. (It should be noted?without surprise?that Smith is particularly critical of the system of medical insurance in this country.) Smith also deals with the internal obstacles, especially the temptation of the seriously ill toward a "Why me?" self-pity and depression, to which he himself admits to having succumbed on occasion. It is this honest appraisal of his own shortcomings in the "grit and determination" department that guarantees Making Miracles Happen an appreciative audience. Recommended for consumer health collections.-?Kay Hogan, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Lib. of the Health SciencesCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Gina Kolata
I opened Making Miracles Happen, by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh, with skepticism. But they have managed to write a medical miracle story that not only is gripping in the best tradition of these tales but also steers clear of most of the pitfalls. As I read their book, I found myself poised to start objecting.... Yet Smith and Naifeh ... met my every objection almost as soon as I could voice it.

From Booklist
When you live with a brain tumor for 20 years, you learn a lot about medicine and about yourself. Smith (Naifeh is his "twenty-two-year partner and coauthor"; their Jackson Pollock [1990] won a Pulitzer Prize) learned how to keep searching until he found the right doctor and the right treatment. He also discovered the importance of the right attitude and of companionable support: be persistent, he says, and when seeing the doctor, have a companion to help in asking questions and remembering instructions. To find the best doctor for your problem, he says, ask other doctors, not their patients; search always for opinions and developing options, not a single right answer; and keep mutual respect between doctor and patient as a goal. Above all, Smith counsels, don't let a disease or an impairing condition turn you into someone different from what you have been. William Beatty

From Kirkus Reviews
What might have been simply another personal account of surviving cancer is in fact an empowering document for anyone with a life-threatening illness. Smith and Naifeh, who won a Pulitzer Prize for their biography of Jackson Pollock and together produce annual reference books on the top doctors and lawyers in the country, are bona fide experts at researching and writing. Here, Naifeh takes a back seat to Smith, who narrates this account. In 1986, aged 34, he was given three months to live by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, who told him his brain tumor was inoperable. Realizing that the statistical odds for his death still left a chance he might live, and needing to take control of his situation, Smith began a search that eventually led him to the right doctor and the right treatment. While describing that search, the authors show how the battle for control of one's life is often a struggle against both one's own feelings of denial and the intimidating, we-know-best attitude of many doctors. To illustrate that the battle can be won, they interviewed dozens of survivors of devastating accidents and illnesses--a parachutist who survived an 11,000-foot fall, a young woman who had the first double-lung transplant--as well as physicians and support group leaders around the country. Their stories, feelings, and insights give dimension to Smith's own experience. To show how the battle can be won, they offer advice on researching one's own disease, asking the right questions, developing an effective doctor-patient relationship. While they stress how essential it is to have the right attitude and how important the support of family or friends can be to winning the battle, they acknowledge that sometimes tough decisions have to be made about continuing the fight, and they argue that deciding where to draw that line is the patient's, not the doctor's, right. Persuasive evidence that ``miracles'' must be worked for--they don't just happen. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Ten years ago, doctors at the Mayo Clinic told thirty-four-year-old Greg Smith that he had an inoperable brain tumor. They gave him three months to live. Today, ten years later, Smith is fit, symptom-free, and managing his tumor with an experimental hormone therapy--living proof that no matter how dire the diagnosis, you don't have to accept a death sentence. How did he do it? In this remarkable book, Smith draws on his own harrowing experiences, and those of other patients who "refused to lie down and die on cue," to show how medical "miracles" are made; from taking control of health care decisions to exploring experimental treatments; from finding the right questions for your doctor to finding the right doctor for your questions; from developing trust in your caregiver to developing faith in yourself; from battling insurance companies to battling the voice in your head that keeps asking, "Why me?" Making Miracles Happen is not just another survivor's memoir. The story of Greg Smith's return from the threshold of death is certainly inspirational--and deeply moving, and even darkly funny at times--but inspiration is only part of the story. "My purpose," says Smith in the introduction, "is to be helpful." In pursuit of that goal, he weaves the eloquence and insights of doctors, as well as the hard-won wisdom of other patients, into the compelling narrative of his own story. The result is a book that entertains, educates, and empowers at the same time; a book that inspires with information and insight, not feel-good nostrums; a book that doesn't just tell the story of how one man achieved his medical miracle, but lays out a road map that others can follow; a book that finally brings the light and air of reason into that darkest and most claustrophobic of all places in the heart: the fear of dying.

From the Publisher
For every patient, for every patient's family...A Pulitzer Prize-winning author has written what could be the most empowering--and important--book you'll ever read."An inspiring gift to all of us who remain one cell away from the pathologies that would kill us...unless we do as Smith did: Get smart, get help, get well."
--Phil DonahueA New York Times Notable Book

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ten years ago, doctors at the Mayo Clinic told thirty-four-year-old Greg Smith that he had an inoperable brain tumor. They gave him three months to live. Today, ten years later, Smith is fit, symptom-free, and managing his tumor with an experimental hormone therapy - living proof that no matter how dire the diagnosis, you don't have to accept a death sentence. In this remarkable book, Smith draws on his own harrowing experiences, and those of other patients who "refused to lie down and die on cue," to show how medical "miracles" are made: from taking control of health care decisions to exploring experimental treatments; from finding the right questions for your doctor to finding the right doctor for your questions; from developing trust in your caregiver to developing faith in yourself; from battling insurance companies to battling the voice in your head that keeps asking, "Why me?"

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Every person with a devastating illness wishes for a miracle, and in this inspiring account of Smith's long battle against brain cancer, he and Naifeh (coauthors of the Pulitzer-winning Jackson Pollock) show how to make it happen. For 20 years, Smith lived first with a rare blood disorder that left his bones dangerously brittle, then with an even more frightening conditionbrain cancer. At first, Smith accepted his doctors' diagnoses and treatments, but when standard intervention proved unsatisfactory he began to see the importance of advocating for better choices. Because he refused to accept the standard prognosis for his type of cancerinoperable, with only three months to liveSmith was able, after much difficult searching, to find a surgeon who operated on the tumor with good results. With clarity, insight and no trace of self-pity, Smith and Naifeh recount Smith's experiences and those of other patients and physicians who struggle to obtain and provide innovative approaches to catastrophic illness or injury. There is no one right way to treat a serious disease, Smith and Naifeh conclude; the important thing is to find options. The authors note the difficulties in battling for the best treatments and doctors, fighting insurance companies that refuse to pay for experimental procedures and confronting denial and depression. They point out the stresses a major illness imposes on patient, family and friends. They even ask where to draw the line between "wanting to fight death with every available means" and "wanting to run from death and hide behind yet another treatment." This positive, empowering book holds no snake-oil wonder cure, but shows that subtler miracles can occur when patients maintain choice, autonomy and dignity. Author tour. (Aug.)

Library Journal

It is everyone's worst nightmare: an inoperable brain tumor, a dire prognosis. At this point, one might naturally give up in despair and compose oneself for the end as best one could. But not Smith (coauthor, with partner Naifeh, of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jackson Pollock). From the December day in 1986 when Smith received the shattering diagnosis, the reader is taken on his harrowing quest to beat the odds. First there are the external obstacles intrinsic to medicine and medical economics. (It should be notedwithout surprisethat Smith is particularly critical of the system of medical insurance in this country.) Smith also deals with the internal obstacles, especially the temptation of the seriously ill toward a "Why me?" self-pity and depression, to which he himself admits to having succumbed on occasion. It is this honest appraisal of his own shortcomings in the "grit and determination" department that guarantees Making Miracles Happen an appreciative audience. Recommended for consumer health collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/97.]Kay Hogan, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Lib. of the Health Sciences

Kirkus Reviews

What might have been simply another personal account of surviving cancer is in fact an empowering document for anyone with a life-threatening illness.

Smith and Naifeh, who won a Pulitzer Prize for their biography of Jackson Pollock and together produce annual reference books on the top doctors and lawyers in the country, are bona fide experts at researching and writing. Here, Naifeh takes a back seat to Smith, who narrates this account. In 1986, aged 34, he was given three months to live by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, who told him his brain tumor was inoperable. Realizing that the statistical odds for his death still left a chance he might live, and needing to take control of his situation, Smith began a search that eventually led him to the right doctor and the right treatment. While describing that search, the authors show how the battle for control of one's life is often a struggle against both one's own feelings of denial and the intimidating, we-know-best attitude of many doctors. To illustrate that the battle can be won, they interviewed dozens of survivors of devastating accidents and illnesses—a parachutist who survived an 11,000-foot fall, a young woman who had the first double-lung transplant—as well as physicians and support group leaders around the country. Their stories, feelings, and insights give dimension to Smith's own experience. To show how the battle can be won, they offer advice on researching one's own disease, asking the right questions, developing an effective doctor-patient relationship. While they stress how essential it is to have the right attitude and how important the support of family or friends can be to winning the battle, they acknowledge that sometimes tough decisions have to be made about continuing the fight, and they argue that deciding where to draw that line is the patient's, not the doctor's, right.

Persuasive evidence that "miracles" must be worked for—they don't just happen.