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Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery
by Henry Marsh
Book Reviewed by:An unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital, and a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions.
What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling, and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially lifesaving operation when it all goes wrong?
In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to "do no harm" holds a bitter irony. Operations on the brain carry grave risks. Every day, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh must make agonizing decisions, often in the face of great urgency and uncertainty.
If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached doctors, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again. With astonishing compassion and candor, Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life.
Do No Harm provides unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital. Above all, it is a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions.
Shortlisted for both the Guardian First Book Prize and the Costa Book Award.
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
A Finalist for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize.
A Finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
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CARCINOMA
n. a cancer, esp. one arising in epithelial tissue.
I went to see my mother in hospital one Saturday. The cancer ward to which she had been admitted was on the tenth floor and her bed was beside a huge panoramic window. The view was of the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge across the river, seen from above yet very close. The spring weather was exceptionally clear. The River Thames below us reflected the sunlight like polished steel and hurt my eyes. The city beyond was almost oppressive in its clarity – an unrelenting view of buildings, inhuman in scale and size – an inappropriate view, I thought, for somebody who was dying.
My mother said that the staff were very friendly but hopelessly overworked and disorganized compared to when she had been a patient in the same hospital many years earlier, gesturing to her bed which had been left unmade for two days as she said this. She hated complaining but admitted she had been kept starved for two consecutive days...
The author manages to strike just the right balance between the use of technical language and vernacular so that the prose conveys his medical expertise without losing readers in the jargon. His writing is also beautifully descriptive and clearly articulates his excitement for — and love of — the act of brain surgery even after decades of practice, and his first-person perspective adds a sense of immediacy to the narrative. Marsh's incredible honesty is what makes this book truly stand out. Do No Harm is a revealing look at the inner world of neuroscience and the doctors who perform this complicated surgery, as well as a fascinating self-portrait of an expert in this field...continued
Full Review
(753 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, author of The Organized Mind and This Is Your Brain On Music
Marsh, one of our leading neurosurgeons, is an eloquent and poetic writer. Do No Harm offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the most mysterious part of human life. His descriptions of neurosurgery are at once fascinating and illuminating; a gripping memoir of an extraordinary career. Katrina Firlik, author of Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside
A soul-baring account of a practical-minded neurosurgeon who does not suffer fools or believe in souls, who favors 'statistical outlier' over 'miracle,' and who admits that a surgeon's ultimate achievement is marked by patients who 'recover completely and forget us completely.' Readers, however, will not soon forget Dr. Marsh. Michael J. Collins, author of Hot Lights, Cold Steel
Do No Harm is a penetrating, in-the-trenches look at the life of a modern day neurosurgeon. With rare and unflinching honesty, Henry Marsh describes not only the soaring triumphs but the shattering tragedies that are so much a part of every surgeon's life. A remarkable achievement. Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases
Do No Harm dares to reveal the raw and tender humanity behind brain surgery. Each story invites readers into the private thoughts of a neurosurgeon and astonishes them with the counterintuitive compassion required in the operating room. Paul Ruggieri M.D., surgeon and author of Confessions of a Surgeon and The Cost of Cutting
The personal patient stories are gripping, providing the public with an incredibly candid look into the imperfections and perfections of a dedicated neurosurgeon...You will not be able to put this book down.British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, the author of Do No Harm, operates on the brain.
The Mayfield Clinic provides this succinct description of the organ: "Nothing in the world can compare with the human brain. This mysterious three-pound organ controls all necessary functions of the body, receives and interprets information from the outside world, and embodies the essence of the mind and soul. Intelligence, creativity, emotion, and memories are a few of the many things governed by the brain."
The brain, as we all know, is housed in a person's skull, specifically in the cranium - a bony enclosure formed by eight separate bones that fuse together during childhood. The inside of the cranium is divided into three separate areas: The ...
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