Sometimes the heroic medical interventions he describes are futile: A desperately sick illegal immigrant a Guatemalan woman who arrived in the U.S. with a parasitic disease affecting her heart is given a heart transplant, but after the operation she dies anyway.
Smoking kills around 430, 000 Americans a year, but in many cases the link with death is hard to prove: for instance, a smoker who dies of heart disease may also be an overeater (or drinker).