When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery

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Neurosurgery is an arrogant and yet intensely humbling occupation. Physicists might distill Creation into a few differential equations and biologists see life's wonders in a DNA helix. Only the neurosurgeon actually touches the fleshy incarnation of Nature's greatest mystery - the human brain - and runs the risks that come with it. The true mystery of neurosurgery lies in the lifelines of surgeon and patient. In this fragile bond, the real drama of ordinary patients and ordinary doctors rising to meet extraordinary situations is played out. For the patient, an operation is a single defining moment. For the neurosurgeon, each moment in the operating room represents the culmination of decades spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft. When these two join there is drama, often too much of it. This book chronicles one man's evolution from a naive and ambitious young intern into a member of that singular breed of doctor - the neurosurgeon. Told through intimate portraits of his patients and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed descriptions of surgical procedure, When the Air Hits Your Brain is a poignant and sometimes shockingly funny account of the mysteries of the mind and the operating room.