First Do No Harm: Reflections on Becoming a Neurosurgeon
It takes a strong stomach to read the detailed accounts here of emergency accidents and crime-victim cases and some of the operations performed by Rainer, chief of surgery at the East Alabama Medical Center. A practitioner of the risk-filled specialty of neurosurgery, the author recalls his years of schooling and brain-numbing, marriage-wrecking internship and residency schedules. Along with discussing his professional satisfactions, he writes with candor about his mistakes, about the inadequacy of certain medical practices (such as burn treatments), and the misdiagnoses and impersonal care of patients that he witnessed in a veteran's hospital. Rainer praises the efficacy of peer-review boardsand, like most physicians, he deplores what he considers excessive malpractice suits fostered by greedy lawyers. Major ad/promo. (AprilCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.