Thousands of people make an early exit each year and arrive on medical examiner Jan Garavaglia's table. What is particularly sad about this is that many of these deaths could easily have been prevented. Although Dr. Garavaglia, or Dr. G, as she's known to many, could not tell these individuals how to avoid their fates, we can benefit from her experience and profound insight into the choices we make each day.

In How Not to Die, Dr. G acts as a medical detective to identify the often-unintentional ways we harm our bodies, then shows us how to use that information to live better and smarter. She provides startling tips on how to make wise choices so that we don't have to see her, or someone like her, for a good, long time.

• In "Highway to the Morgue," we learn the one commonsense safety tip that can prevent deadly accidents - and the reason you should never drive with the windows half open

• "Code Blue" teaches us how to increase our chances of leaving the hospital alive - and how to insist that everyone caring for you practice the easiest hygiene method around

• "Everyday Dangers" informs us why neat freaks live longer - and the best ways to stay safe in a car during a lightning storm

Using anecdotes from her cases and a liberal dose of humor, Dr. G gives us her prescription for living a healthier, better, longer life - and unlike many doctors' orders, this one is surprisingly easy to follow.

Something was lodged in her windpipe. As I probed with my gloved fingers, I discovered that it was a piece of gum. Normally, this wouldn't be odd, except that I found it in a cadaver I was dissecting a first-year medical student. Cadavers are preserved hulls of bodies, donated remains. Doctors-to-be: become acquainted with them in anatomy classes. To us, they aren't people. We learn to depersonalize our cadavers, to think of them as structures and tissues, not as human beings. And in med school, they're used to teach us anatomy, not how to find the cause of death. Cadavers don't usually give up clues. That's not their job.

But when this one died, she was chewing gum. This made me curious. How-did she get to this point? Where did she come from? How did she die? I started asking if anyone could get me some history on my cadaver. The body, it turned out, was of a nun who died suddenly of cardiac arrest while chewing gum.

And so began my fascination with how people die.

I might as well take a moment here to introduce myself. I'm a medical examiner, the only type of doctor whose patients are dead. "Dr. G" is the nickname I was given by my team of autopsy technicians in Bexar County, Texas, where I served as medical examiner for ten years. My Italian last name, Garavaglia, is hard to pronounce correctly, since the second "g'' silent, like it is in "lasagna." My technicians shortened it to "Dr. G" and it stuck.

Like that "g" my patients are silent. They can't tell me how they died, so I have to find out. Their bodies store secrets and have stories to tell. Sometimes there aren't many details, maybe not even firm answers. But usually there are clues about how people lived, what diseases and injuries they had, and how they died. Those clues get discovered through an autopsy, a thorough, methodical examination of a body. The results can help solve crimes, settle lawsuits, and give families needed information about their loved ones. Often it is tricky work, like solving a puzzle.

During an autopsy, I make notes and take photographs. I do an internal examination organ by organ. I slice them into neat pieces with a carving knife, looking for irregularities. I've been told, "I could use you when I butcher a deer." But when I cut, I'm looking for answers. During the autopsy, I may make microscopic slides and take fluid samples for the toxicology laboratory. This is the methodology for finding out how someone died.

Preventing Premature Death

I obviously have no problems with autopsies, although I hope to wait a long time before one is conducted on me. I learn something from every one of them, and what I have discovered is that many deaths don't need to happen. Yes, everyone eventually dies. You can't prevent that, but you can avoid life's inevitable toe tag from arriving prematurely. And you can do it with the simplest lifesaving acts, whether it's strapping on a seat belt correctly, making subtle changes to your diet, or following your doctor's orders. That's not all, either. There are other actions you might not be aware of that can save your life. For example, did you know dial open or partially open car windows Increase the risk of more severe injuries in an accident? There are many lessons that can be learned from the dead - lessons that can help us, the living, take better care of ourselves. I wrote this book to show you how to avoid an early trip to the morgue.

© 2009 by Jan Garavaglia,M.D.

Tags: Health

About the Author

Jan Garavaglia,M.D., is the chief examiner for the District 9 Medical Examiner's Office in Florida, presiding over 1,100 autopsies a year. She is also the host of Discovery Health channel's top-rated series, Dr. G: Medical Examiner.