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 life-saving 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, Henry Marsh must make agonising decisions, often in the face of great urgency and ...
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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 life-saving 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, Henry Marsh must make agonising decisions, often in the face of great urgency and uncertainty. If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practised by calm and detached surgeons, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again. With astonishing compassion and candour, one of the country's leading neurosurgeons reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets and the moments of black humour that characterise a brain surgeon's life. DO NO HARM is an 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.
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This book, which started life as a diary, is a candid account of how Henry Marsh, a leading British neurosurgeon, manages to keep going, especially when the going gets tough, in what is possibly the most complicated area of medicine - brain surgery. His comments, observations and reflections are based on personal experiences and are written with feeling and compassion.
Marsh understands only too well the concerns, worries and emotions of those looking after someone exposed to brain surgery. His son was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was a three-month-old baby and had to undergo surgery which resulted in complete recovery. As a neurosurgeon, he knows the challenges and risks brain surgery, indeed any surgical procedure, presents and he shares his knowledge and thoughts with us. Doctors, consultants and surgeons have only limited time at their disposal to talk to us at length when we are confronted with such situations.
An outstanding book from a neurosurgeon who is also a gifted writer.