When the Air Hits Your Brain
by Frank T. Vertosick Jr. M.D.
Our Price: $34.94
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.27 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Frank T. Vertosick Jr. M.D.Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-04-28
ISBN: 0449227138
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Fawcett
Book Reviews of When the Air Hits Your Brain
Book Review: Fascinating, strange and touching
Summary: 5 Stars
The history of neurosurgery is a fascinating one, however, even more interesting is to see how it has developed over the last century since, for example, the legendary Dr. Harvey Cushing forged the techniques of brain surgery over seventy years ago. `When the Air Hits Your Brain - Tales of Neurosurgery' is a compelling collection of tales written with erudition and sensitivity with at times gruesome detail of brain operations that sometimes were successful and other times not. As Dr. Vertosick proposes in his introduction, that, for the most part, a surgeon learns more from the failures than the successes; therefore most of the stories within are tragedies - failures that paved the way to future successes. For those interested in the world of neurosurgery, this book should more than satisfy as it covers a vast array of different cases as well as the general ambience and culture of this very specialized profession.
The author begins his tale as a burgeoning medical student, internship, ending with his last year as Chief Resident. Interestingly, his last year, from his perspective was his worst. He explains that being a Chief Resident is a precarious position, because you have to continue to cow tow to the attending staff and the junior residents continue to look upon you as just another taskmaster, a kind of in-house bully, ensuring the skills required are learned. Vertosick explains the position as "straddling two worlds, "...a sergeant in the surgical military, friend to neither enlisted man nor officer, endowed with great responsibilities but given little true authority." (P.254)
There are many miraculous and downright bizarre cases chronicled throughout the text. One of the strange cases was the woman who had been shot between the eyes by her drunken and irate boyfriend. Dr. Vertosick arrived hurriedly from home to the ER to find the woman in the waiting room, her head wrapped in a bloody towel, watching the television with a police officer by her side. Taking her into the examination room, the woman had indeed been shot directly between the eyes, and the exist wound, at the top of the back of her skull. The bullet, upon examining the exit wound dropped to the floor, where the police officer quickly retrieved it and left the room. Fortunately for the woman, the bullet had hit the skull, ricochet upward and bouncing, more so, rattling, between her brain and the top of her skull, lodging without damage. What truly amazed Vertosick, was the woman's attitude, because she continued to make excuses for her boyfriend, claiming he didn't really mean to shoot her in the head, he was just a little angry with her. She didn't realize how close to death she actually came.
There are many other strange and touching stories, the most heart wrenching being infants and young children born with brain related illnesses which the staff could not treat. What I admired in this text was Dr. Vertosick's honesty and his efforts to steel himself from becoming too close to his patients - he called it becoming a psychopathic doctor, however, in the end, he discovers a middle way.
Frank Vertosick is a very good writer and I hope he finds the time in the future to write another book about the profession.
Summary of When the Air Hits Your Brain
"This book should be read by every medical student, doctor and present or potential patient. In other words, by all of us."--Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles
Rule One for the neurologist in residence: "You ain't never the same when the air hits your brain." In this fascinating book, Dr. Frank Vertosick brings that fact to life through intimate portraits of patients and unsparing yet gripping descriptions of brain surgery.
With insight, humor, and poignancy, Dr. Vertosick chronicles his remarkable evolution from naive young intern to world-class neurosurgeon, where he faced, among other challenges, a six week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22 caliber bullet lodged in his skull. In candid detail, WHEN THE AIR HITS YOUR BRAIN illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room.
"Riveting."
--Publishers Weekly
Internal Medicine Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Internal Medicine Books
BMT InfoNet's Resource Directoryby BMT
Blood and Marrow Transplant Information Network; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.21
America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918by Alfred W. Crosby
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1990-01-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.20
Price in other shops:
Oral Radiology: Principles and Interpretation, 6eby Stuart C. White DDS PhD, Michael J. Pharoah DDS
Mosby; Published: 2008-09-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.00
Price in other shops:
Rapid Review Pathology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 2eby Edward F. Goljan MD
Mosby; Published: 2007-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophreniaby Carolyn Spiro, Pamela Spiro Wagner
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.60
Price in other shops:
The Columbia EncyclopediaColumbia University Press; Published: 2007-05-30; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Perspectives on Personality (5th Edition)by Charles S. Carver, Michael F. Scheier
Allyn & Bacon; Published: 2003-07-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.79
Price in other shops:
General Chemistry: An Integrated Approach (3rd Edition)by John W. Hill, Ralph H. Petrucci
Prentice Hall; Published: 2001-12-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
DeGowin's Diagnostic Examinationby Richard LeBlond, Richard DeGowin, Donald Brown
McGraw-Hill Professional; Published: 2004-03-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.99
Price in other shops:
The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Timeby John Kelly
Harper; Published: 2005-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortalityby Pauline W. Chen
Knopf; Published: 2007-01-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.32
Price in other shops:
Med School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Medical School Experience: By Students, for Studentsby Robert H. Miller, Dan Bissell M.D.
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-07-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.24
Price in other shops:
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books; Published: 2002-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
On Call: A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residencyby Emily R. Transue
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performanceby Atul Gawande
Baker and Taylor; Picador; Published: 2008-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.65
Price in other shops:
How Doctors Thinkby Jerome Groopman
Houghton Mifflin Company; Published: 2007-03-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Yearsby Dr. Michael J. Collins
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2005-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.10
Price in other shops:
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Insideby Katrina Firlik
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2007-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.23
Price in other shops:
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande
Picador; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops:
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Yearsby Dr. Michael J. Collins
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-01-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.59
Price in other shops: