English and literature
Memoir, life writing, voice, symbolism, fable, memory, and close reading.
Academic Resources
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Catalog record
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Silence Between Two Heartbeats |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | A Father’s True Story of Love, Survival, and the Fairy Tale That Carried Them Through |
| Author | A T M Haidar Khan |
| Language | English |
| Categories | Literary memoir; narrative nonfiction; life-writing; family and caregiving; health humanities; diaspora; allegory |
| Digital review copy | First Edition, 2026 · 297 PDF pages |
| Barnes & Noble hardcover | EAN / ISBN-13 979-8-18255-919-5 · 302 pages |
| Trim size | 5.5 × 8.5 inches |
| Rights holder | A T M Haidar Khan |
| Publication platform | Barnes & Noble Press |
The verified hardcover identifier shown above is the only ISBN published on this site unless another format identifier is independently confirmed from the authoritative publishing account.
Zenodo research resource
From Lived Experience to Research Questions
A book-derived medical humanities research prospectus deposited on Zenodo as a Version 1.0 preprint.
This prospectus examines how lived experience documented in The Silence Between Two Heartbeats can generate research questions rather than serve as evidence of medical fact. It uses the memoir as a source of caregiver observation and uncertainty, while keeping narrative testimony separate from clinical evidence.
The Zenodo record identifies the resource as a Preprint, published September 24, 2026, authored by A T M Haidar Khan, and derived from The Silence Between Two Heartbeats (ISBN 979-8-18255-919-5). The record includes MeSH subject indexing for Narrative Medicine.
This resource is a research prospectus, not a peer-reviewed journal article, clinical study, medical guideline, diagnosis, treatment recommendation, or evidence that any medical hypothesis described in it is established.
The PDF served on this website is an author-hosted copy for convenient reading and download. Zenodo remains the scholarly version of record.
Citation
Khan, A. T. M. H. (2026). From Lived Experience to Research Questions (Version 1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22927886
Curriculum pathways
Possible fields of inquiry.
These are optional evaluation pathways, not prescribed teaching claims. Faculty retain full authority over suitability, framing, learning outcomes, and student use.
Medical humanities
Lived experience, uncertainty, communication, and the ethics of illness narrative.
Psychology
Family experience, resilience, memory, attachment, uncertainty, and meaning-making.
Social work and family studies
Caregiving, resilience, separation, attachment, advocacy, and family systems.
Education
Life writing, interdisciplinary reading, reflective discussion, and narrative inquiry.
Writing and narrative ethics
Truth claims, privacy, perspective, testimony, and responsibility in personal nonfiction.
Academic contribution
Why I hope the book enters university classrooms.
I hope The Silence Between Two Heartbeats earns a place in university curricula not as a medical case study, but as a primary text in the growing field of narrative medicine and health humanities. It sits at the intersection of clinical reality and lived experience — the kind of dual-register account (exact hour counts beside mythic imagery) that gives nursing, pediatrics, bioethics, and medical humanities students something textbooks rarely offer: what a hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and a NICU stay actually feel like from inside a family, not just from a chart.
For literature and cultural studies programs, it also opens a conversation about immigrant, Muslim, and South Asian-American fatherhood — a caregiving voice still underrepresented in illness narratives, which tend to center mothers. My expectation is modest but specific: that even a single course including this book gives future clinicians and caregivers a fuller sense of what families are carrying when they walk into a NICU.
Social contribution
Beyond the classroom.
Beyond the classroom, I hope the book does something simpler — that it reaches a parent in the middle of their own HIE diagnosis and makes them feel less alone in the specific, unglamorous parts of it: the sleepless vigilance, the hour-long feedings, the fear that has no clean resolution.
Public awareness of HIE and birth asphyxia remains limited, and most existing resources are clinical rather than experiential. A firsthand account can do work that a pamphlet can't — helping other families recognize their own fear as love rather than failure, and helping the wider public understand why "early intervention" and "delayed emergency care" are not abstractions but hours that can reshape a child's life.
If the book contributes anything lasting to society, I'd want it to be that: a small widening of empathy for families living inside a diagnosis most people only encounter in passing.
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