excellent narrator (audiobook).

Indepth review of surgery from... well... basically prehistoric days... to current state of surgery. Engaging and fascinating, what can I say? If you like finding out about all the gore and stupidity included in the search for medical excellence this book is for you. I found the last chapters less captivating - they review the current state of various medical areas and, well, since we don't do quite so many horrific procedures, like blood letting, anymore, it just wasn't as interesting. Still, the 9/10ths of the book that reviewed the often gruesome medical procedures of yore was incredibly interesting.

Highly recommend ( )

Not really—more like a tour through the history of Western science, arriving eventually at the “implant revolution” where, because of antibiotics, we can have reasonable confidence that the body can safely be cut open and altered, including with replacement parts. A few interesting bits about things like the way that scientific understanding of nerves had to await the existence of dyes that could distinguish nerve tissue which was otherwise unseeable, but mostly too long. ( )

As a physician I knew some of the details presented but found much new and fascinating. John Hunter has long been a hero mine if that can be said of someone long dead. As I listened I realized I have implants; lenses to replace cataracts and a tooth. I trained at thre Mayo and remember hearing the story behind the decision to treat the nurse with Streptomycin for T B. It involved 6 rats. 2 untreated who had TB. 2 with T B treated with Streptomycin. 2 without T B who also received Streptomycin. The 4 that received Streptomycin survived. On the basis of that the decision was made to treat. Successfully. Sadly Streptomycin resistance has now made it no longer useful in T B treatment.
I recall when the FDA first proposed monitoring and regulating heart valves (my interest) and how worried everyone was. While the FDA isn't without fault it beats the wild West that used to exist. It made mistakes in monitoring the manufacturer of generic Heparin that threatened the lifesaving supply. And it has allowed drugs like oxycontin. Improving i the FDA is the clear goal.
I like the idea of loners tinkering to make discoveries of great New insights.
The enumeration of the number and variety of implant placed each year was perhaps too long but made that point of how it is impacting everyone's life.
In a world where factories need few workers perhaps spending that extra wealth on health Care won't be a bad thing. What is better than taking care of one another?
Predicting the future is admitting you are willing to be wrong but hoping you get the broad outline.
The current Covid pandemic is a reminder we need to solve the population problem. ( )