Frank T. Vertosick Jr.

A decent story of the author's neurosurgery residency. It starts out extremely stilted, like bad fiction, with in the made-up dialog the other characters conveniently explaining for us each acronym and procedure as it arises. But it gets better, and even achieves some emotional heft by the end. I think "Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery," by Henry Marsh, is probably still the better book—more honest—but this does have some very good descriptions of cases and surgeries. (Vertosick makes a number of mistakes when talking about science beyond neurosurgery, but as far as I can tell he is accurate within his specialty.)… (mer)

This was an engaging memoir of the medical school and training experiences, from internship to fellowships, of the author on his journey to become a neurosurgeon. It includes some fascinating case histories, but mostly focuses on the author's evolving relationship with and attitude towards his patients.

When he began training, he would find himself emotionally touched by his patients. Then, "Trauma experiences hardened me to death and pain patients made me cynical about suffering. I felt my personality shifting away during this arduous process of becoming 'one of them.' Clinical cases no longer evoked the strong emotions they once had."
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"Yet my emotional numbness was still only partial. I still hadn't progressed to the status of true surgical psychopath, wherein one's humanity is placed under general anesthesia."

He also discusses the mistakes made and the effect they had on him in his training. At a certain point, as he became more skilled, he learned he had to guard against overconfidence:

"Before reaching my surgical adulthood, I would again stumble into the inferno of overconfidence. And come perilously close to emotional incineration."

Ultimately (thankfully), the author came to the conclusion that "surgical psychopathy" was not the best way to handle the difficulties of his profession. He learned that some caring is a necessary element to be a good surgeon.

I enjoyed this book, focusing as it does on the emotional development of a surgeon. I recommend it if this sounds interesting to you.

3 1/2 stars… (mer)