Just Another Immigrant’s Son: A Memoir on the Otology Renaissance

Michael Paparella is born on the eve of the banking crisis in 1933. His immigrant parents struggle to raise their family in a city embroiled in striking, race riots, and the deepest economic depression this country has ever known. Although neither has finished primary school, they push Michael, insisting he will not live a life of poverty. You will be a doctor, Vincenzo tells his son. At the age of sixteen, he earns a pre-med scholarship to the University of Michigan that launches him on a career performing research surgeries on farm cats and squabbling soldiers who’ve bitten each other’s ears off, then to inventing his own surgical tools made from dental implements, and finally into a practice where he, to this day, restores the hearing of thousands of grateful people.

Just Another Immigrant’s Son is a journey through Paparella’s fascinating life as a world-renowned surgeon, researcher, and teacher-and the medical revolution he helped create.