'The Perfect Predator': A memoir about a scientist's efforts to save her husband from a deadly superbug!
Book: 'The Perfect Predator'
Authors: Stephanie Strathdee and Tom Patterson
Genres: Non-Fiction, Biography
Summary:
In 2015, epidemiologist Stephanie Strathdy and psychologist Tom Patterson visited the Red Pyramid in Egypt. Meanwhile, Tom came in contact with the poisonous gas inside the pyramid. Who knew, climbing the pyramid stairs would become a grimly-realistic metaphor for the later days of Tom's life!
A few days after returning from that adventure of Red Pyramid, Tom suddenly fell ill with a stomach ailment, which everyone thought might be food poisoning. But when a minor stomach ailment became more serious, he was transferred to UC San Diego's emergency medical center. It is known there that Tom was infected with the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii.
Shocked, emotionally devastated Stephanie one day hold Tom's hand and whispered, 'I don't know if you can hear me, Tom, I want to grow old with you. But to keep you only for myself would be cruel selfishness. If you want to live, give me a signal.' Tom grabbed her hand tightly in response to her words that day.
During her undergraduate days, Stephanie worked in the lab on control of same bacteria. She started studying again, read a research paper and learned about bacteriophage therapy. With her own educational and research experience and the help of researchers around the world, she isolated a bacteriophage from sewage. Later, with the help of bacteriophage therapy, she took away her husbands life from the hands of devil.
'The Perfect Predator' is a love story, a story of survival against all odds and the re-discovery of the powerful biomissile bacteriophage in global superbug crisis.