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Robin Cook

FOREIGN BODY

CRITICAL

CRISIS

FOREIGN BODY
Robin Cook
Putnam Adult
Medical Thriller
ISBN: 9780399155024

Maria Hernandez needs a hip replacement, Herbert Benfatti has to have a knee replaced and David Lucas wants his stomach stapled. All travel from the US to India as participants in what has become known as medical tourism.

With the cost of surgery marginally lower in India than in America, it seems like a no-brainer. Especially considering the surgeries are done in first-rate medical facilities by extremely qualified doctors, the families are put up in five-star hotels, and patients and loved ones are given every consideration. However, what appears to be a great deal soon turns into a nightmare. None of these patients expect to pay with their lives in order to save financially.

These three seemingly healthy people suddenly die one after another, all of apparent heart attacks. Is there a problem with the care they've received? Did they have underlying and undiagnosed heart problems no one was aware of? Or is there something more sinister going on here?

When Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, learns of her grandmother's death via a CNN news report, she is shocked. She had no idea that the woman who raised her was even traveling to India for surgery, and intends to investigate this unexpected tragedy. A post-surgery heart attack in an individual who had a thorough cardiovascular checkup only months before makes no sense to this burgeoning doctor.

The fact that the representative from the Queen Victoria hospital is pressuring Jennifer for an immediate answer regarding either cremation or embalming also strikes her as odd. While she realizes that in India bodies are taken care of almost immediately after death, she does not appreciate being coerced into a decision. The pressure only adds to her sense that something is amiss in her grandmother's situation.

Once in India, Jennifer learns of two other patients who expired in much the same way as Maria, and the search for answers is on. Luckily, Jennifer is able to make contact with the surviving spouses of the other victims and encourage them to push for an autopsy much as she is doing. However, permission for an autopsy is rarely given in India, and no one seems inclined to help the three grieving women.

Luck is on Jennifer's side, though. Her close friend, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, and her husband, Jack Stapleton, are both medical examiners and have consented to travel to India in order to help Jennifer get to the bottom of why American medical patients are dropping like flies.

The problem is, Jennifer is becoming a major annoyance to some powerful people in India. With the higher-ups determined to stop her no matter what it takes, her life is in as precarious a balance as that of the dead patients. Will she be able to solve the mystery surrounding these deaths, or will she become just another foreign body?

As a fan of Robin Cook, I felt reasonably sure I would like FOREIGN BODY before I ever picked it up. I wasn't wrong. The topic of medical tourism is a timely one and raises questions of safety and standards of care outside the U.S. The character of Jennifer Hernandez is very likable, and her ability to gain answers and justice for all of the victims is inspiring. The non-stop action and format of the book make it one that you'll read quickly just to see what happens next.

--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor

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