The Naked Surgeon

Download or read book The Naked Surgeon written by Samer Nashef and published by Scribe Publications. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are not meant to touch hearts. We all have one, but most of us will never see one. The heart surgeon now has that privilege but, for centuries, the heart was out of reach even for surgeons. So when a surgeon nowadays opens up a ribcage and mends a heart, it remains something of a miracle, even if, to some, it is merely plumbing. As with plumbers, the quality of surgeons’ work varies. As with plumbers, surgeons’ opinion of their own prowess and their own attitude to risk are not always reliable. Measurement is key. We’ve had a century of effective evidence-based medicine. We’ve had barely a decade of thorough monitoring of clinical outcomes. Thanks to the ground-breaking risk modelling of pioneering surgeons like Samer Nashef, we at last know how to judge whether an operation is in a patient’s best interest, which hospital and surgeon would be best for that operation, when it might best be performed and what the exact level of risk is. We have at last made what is important in surgery measurable. But how should surgeons, and their patients, use these newfound insights? Ever since his days as a medical student, Samer Nashef has challenged the medical profession to be more open and more accurate about the success of surgical procedures, for the sake of the patients. In The Naked Surgeon, he unclothes his own profession to demonstrate to his reader (and prospective patient) many revelations, such as the paradox at the heart of the cardiac surgeon’s craft: the more an operation is likely to kill you, the better it is for you. And he does so with absolute clarity, fluency and not a little wit. PRAISE FOR SAMER NASHEF ‘[The Naked Surgeon] takes a Malcolm Gladwell-esque look at what happens in operating theatres … If a book-length examination of the topic sounds dry, it isn't. Nashef’s humanity and compassion shine through.’ The Times ‘One can't help but think of Henry Marsh when reading Samer Nashef … Nashef does a fine job of guiding the reader though the surgical and statistical intricacies and he writes clearly, with plentiful moments of humour.’ The Independent

Download or read book The Naked Truth about Breast Implants written by Susan Kolb and published by Lone Oak Publishing. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kolb has treated thousands of women with complications from breast implant surgery. She routinely incorporates state of the art surgical technology with holistic medicine and spiritual healing.

Download or read book The Angina Monologues written by Samer Nashef and published by Scribe Us. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering cardiac surgeon expertly sews up the heart of surgery. The Angina Monologues speeds from the transporting of a donor's heart up the highway's shoulder, to cautionary stories of excessive intervention gone awry in US hospitals, to a traumatic trip to bring advanced cardiac surgery to the Palestinian West Bank. Nashef tells heartstopping stories of transplants, coronary artery bypasses, aorta repair, and cardiac arrest. He also delivers humane advice about medical realities rarely observed: the futility of obsessing over diet, the necessity of calculating risks, the role of decision making, and the resilience of doctor and patient alike. Nashef is a magnificently warm and likeable doctor and writer; and he has the best imaginable bedside manner.

Download or read book Mortal Lessons written by Richard Selzer and published by HMH. This book was released on 1996-04-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surgeon shares true stories of life, death, and the human body in an essay collection that “will nail you to your chair” (Saturday Review). With settings ranging from the operating theater to a Korean ambulance, and topics as varied as the disposition of a corpse and the author’s own childhood, these nineteen captivating, wry, and intimate vignettes offer a poignant examination of health, humanity, and, of course, mortality. Sometimes tragic, sometimes humorous, the essays offer a physician’s viewpoint that goes beyond the medical to also consider the most meaningful issues and questions we face, whether as doctors or patients, cared for or caregiver. Praised by Kirkus Reviews as “an impressive display of knowledge and art, magic and mystery,” Mortal Lessons is a classic reflection on the human body and the human experience, and will resonate with readers for generations to come.

Download or read book King of Hearts written by G. Wayne Miller and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-02-10 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few of the great stories of medicine are as palpably dramatic as the invention of open-heart surgery, yet, until now, no journalist has ever brought all of the thrilling specifics of this triumph to life. This is the story of the surgeon many call the father of open-heart surgery, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who, along with colleagues at University Hospital in Minneapolis and a small band of pioneers elsewhere, accomplished what many experts considered to be an impossible feat: He opened the heart, repaired fatal defects, and made the miraculous routine. Acclaimed author G. Wayne Miller draws on archival research and exclusive interviews with Lillehei and legendary pioneers such as Michael DeBakey and Christiaan Barnard, taking readers into the lives of these doctors and their patients as they progress toward their landmark achievement. In the tradition of works by Richard Rhodes and Tracy Kidder, King of Hearts tells the story of an important and gripping piece of forgotten science history.

Download or read book Cooley: the Career of a Great Heart Surgeon written by Harry Minetree and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1973 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Naked to the Bone written by Bettyann Kevles and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the late 1960s, the computer and television were linked to produce medical images that were as startling as Roentgen's original X-rays. Computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic reasonance imaging (MRI) made it possible to picture soft tissues invisible to ordinary X-rays. Ultrasound allowed expectant parents to see their unborn children. Positron emission tomography (PET) enabled neuroscientists to map the brain. In this lively history of medical imaging, the first to cover the full scope of the field from X-rays to MRI-assisted surgery, Bettyann Kevles explores the consequences of these developments for medicine and society. Through lucid prose, vivid anecdotes, and more than seventy striking illustrations, she shows how medical imaging has transformed the practice of medicine - from pediatrics to dentistry, neurosurgery to geriatrics, gynecology to oncology. Beyond medicine, Kevles describes how X-rays and the newer technologies have become part of the texture of modern life and culture. They helped undermine Victorian sexual sensibilities, gave courts new forensic tools, provided plots for novels and movies, and offered artists from Picasso to Warhol new ways to depict the human form.