When the Air Hits Your Brain
When the Air Hits Your Brain Books
Product Description
“This book should be read by every medical student, doctor and bestow or potential patient. In other words, by all of us.”
–Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Like, 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-ancient 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
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This book was mediocre. The tales are not really atypical for anyone in the medical field. To write a excellent medical book, someone needs to have had an incredible career, really like medicine, have spent time in an obscure field, have an innovative spin, or be an brilliant novelist. Unfortunately, Vertosick brought none of these to this book.
His tales were not really unusual or atypical – they were things you can find in any field of medicine (the pregnant woman who refuses treatment even though she will die, the abandoned baby in the sickbay, etc.). The writing was weak – it didn’t feel like someone who especially loved writing or had a knack for it. Sometimes it felt like emotional manipulation – terrible writing pulling out all the tearjerker stops.
He also seems to have a blind spot to his own ego; all docs have huge egos, and need to be a small bit self-mocking about it, which he is not. (Repeated many times: “If it was simple, anyone would do it.”)
The most fascinating part might be for someone to see behind the scenes how people are chosen for medical fields – in his case, a fluke landed him in neurosurgery, and how they train.
That said, there were a few amusing tales – like the guy who carved “You suck” to another resident on a skull, which of course later had to be reopened and everyone found out. Amusing tale, which anyone who has ever worked in a sickbay can judge, yet it was hard for me to judge that this didn’t result in an expulsion from a program.
Vertosick probably would have had a much better book by bringing his tales to a ghostwriter. He tried to walk the line between the harsh, sarcastic, yet amusing medical memoir and the sensitive, isn’t-this-incredible kind, gone both. There’s tons of excellent medical writing out there – skip this one. Try David Delvin’s It’s a Doc’s Life instead – that’s where Vertosick was aiming.
Rating: 1 / 5
I felt a consequence of life. I felt a destiny of a doctor
Rating: 5 / 5
This book changed my perspective towards neurosergury. I’ve everlastingly sought after to be a doctor; after reading this book I know just so what I want to do after medical school.
Rating: 5 / 5
Vertosick, did not have any of the egos that is ordinarily brain surgeons. There was no “I did this, i did that” in the book. Most of all he has alot of humor.Wow, i never realized that doctors may possibly possess that kind of humor.It is a excellent read and i promise that you will laugh out loud.
Rating: 5 / 5
My adult son had surgery for a subdural hematoma 3 years ago, so I sought after to know more about brain surgery. I read fiction frequently, but my venture into nonfiction was so rewarding because of this doctor’s insightful recollection of his training and experiences. I will read all of his books because this was a fascinating look at the scariest of all surgeries. It reads nearly like a novel, and I may possibly not place it down.
Rating: 5 / 5