How We’ve Misunderstood CPR

Plus: a pizza shop in the middle of New York’s migrant crisis; the third Trump indictment; and Li Ziqi’s online pastoral poetics. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, August 5, 2023 In today’s newsletter, The Weekend Essay, and then: • A pizza shop in the middle of New York’s migrant crisis • The third Trump indictment • Li Ziqi’s online pastoral poetics How We’ve Misunderstood CPR The brutal procedure can save lives, but only in particular cases. Why has it become a default treatment? By Sunita Puri Photograph by Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Chicago Sun-Times / AP Shortly after his sixty-seventh birthday, Ernesto Chavez retired from his job at a Los Angeles food warehouse. Sara, his wife of forty-five years, told me that he meticulously took his medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol, hoping to enjoy his time with his grandchildren. But one morning in January, 2021, Ernesto burned with fever, his chest heaving as though he were once again lifting heavy boxes. At the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19. His oxygen levels plummeted, and he was quickly intubated. Ten days later, his lungs were failing, his face was bloated from litres of intravenous fluid, and his hands and feet had begun to cool. As his chances of survival waned, I arranged to speak with his family about a subject inseparable from death itself: cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. For decades, physicians have debated whether CPR should be offered to people who suffer from the final blows of incurable illness, be it heart failure, advanced cancer, or dementia. Although CPR has become synonymous with medical heroism, nearly eighty-five per cent of those who receive it in a hospital die, their last moments marked by pain and chaos. The pandemic only deepened the risks: every chest compression spewed contagious particles into the air, and intubation, which often follows compressions, exposed doctors to virus-laden saliva. Hospitals in Michigan and Georgia reported that no COVID patient survived the procedure. An old question acquired new urgency: Why was CPR a default treatment, even for people as sick as Ernesto? Keep reading From the News Desk Our Local Correspondents A Pizza Shop in the Middle of New York’s Migrant Crisis An immigrant small-business owner sees himself in the asylum seekers who were sleeping on the street outside his restaurant in Manhattan. By Eric Lach The Political Scene Podcast “This Is The Big One”: The Third Trump Indictment The former President has been indicted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and remain in power. How will the charges be litigated in the court of public opinion? With Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos Editor’s Pick Rabbit Holes Li Ziqi’s Online Pastoral Poetics Millions of people subscribed to her vision of an idyllic rural existence. Who was she, and why did she disappear? By Oscar Schwartz Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. Rhythm Man, by Stephanie Stein Crease (Oxford). This propulsive biography places the drummer and bandleader Chick Webb at the epicenter of the early Swing Era. The author pays close attention to the details of the recordings of Webb’s band, contextualizing their shifting sound against a backdrop of changing racial dynamics. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Last Call at Coogan’s, by Jon Michaud (St. Martin’s). Based on interviews with nearly a hundred subjects, this portrait of a neighborhood bar, which operated in Washington Heights from 1985 to 2020, is also a portrait of a modern American city in microcosm. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Dykette, by Jenny Fran Davis (Henry Holt). This biting gay millennial comedy of manners takes place at the holiday home of a wealthy lesbian couple, where two younger, less financially secure couples visit them for ten days. As the older couple derive satisfaction from comparing their lives with those of their guests, a connection develops between a member of each of the younger couples, sparking a consequential outburst. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Retrospective, by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Riverhead). The life of the filmmaker Sergio Cabrera provides the raw material for this searching novel, which charts the Cabrera family’s experiences through particularly turbulent periods of the twentieth century. Cabrera’s father, who became an accomplished dramaturge and actor, fled Fascist Spain as a teen-ager; Cabrera himself, along with his sister and their parents, would leave Colombia decades later, when changing political winds made their Communist sympathies a liability. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The best books of 2023 so far What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Fiction “Yogurt Days” I wondered if my mother had been risking her life to come here every week, to bring him the yogurt. By Jamie Quatro This Week in Fiction Jamie Quatro on the Dual Lens of Memory The author discusses her story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Cressida Leyshon The Front Row What to Stream: Lust, Caution, and Ira Sachs’s “The Delta” The first feature film by the director of “Passages” shows the perils that arise when gay lives must be lived in secrecy. By Richard Brody Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Matt Jackson Shouts & Murmurs I’m a Hack, by ChatGPT I know that I’m one of the issues in the W.G.A. strike, but I won’t be able to write myself out of a paper bag for decades. By Al Franken and Pat Proft Daily Shouts Lesser-Known Writers’ Strikes The James Patterson-ghostwriter strike of 2003, and other labor disputes that are threatening to curtail access to new cultural content. By Zoe Si, Timothy Cahill, and Ryan Walls Blitt’s Kvetchbook T.F.G. Shows Up Again for Hammer Time Racking up frequent-flier miles. By Barry Blitt Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.