Like the 14th-century surgeon in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dr. Augusto Sarmiento has a tale to tell. This book is both an interesting autobiographical story of a young immigrant doctor's rise to success in the United States and a critique of recent trends in American medicine by someone who is now a recognized authority in orthopaedic surgery. Educated in his native Colombia, Dr. Sarmiento immigrated to the United States not long after receiving his medical degree. His early years were difficult as he struggled to overcome the language barrier and often encountered prejudice regarding his medical training in Latin America. Feeling like an outsider for many years, he finally came to realize that his unorthodox perspective on medicine was an asset that could be used to make significant contributions to his specialty. He was among the pioneers who brought total hip replacement surgery to the United States, and his research improved the profession's understanding of the way fractures heal. In time he was elected president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.As someone who has practiced medicine for almost fifty years on many levels he is profoundly disturbed by recent developments in the American healthcare scene. He is especially critical of the increasing control of education and research by the pharmaceutical industry, the unconscionable overuse of surgery by many practitioners in his field, and the greed factor that has saturated the medical profession. This modern surgeon's tale is both an inspirational story of how one man made a difference and a revealing critique of the ills affecting American medicine today.Augusto Sarmiento, M.D. (Miami, FL), is currently professor and chairman emeritus at the University of Miami Medical School. A world-recognized authority in orthopaedic surgery, he has won many awards and has been invited to lecture more than 500 times in over 40 countries.

In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be. With astonishing compassion, he recounts harrowing and sometimes hopeful stories from his operating room: we meet a pulseless man who lives with an electric heart pump, an expecting mother who refuses surgery unless the doctors let her pregnancy reach full term, and a baby who gets a heart transplant-only to die once it's in place. For readers of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal and of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Open Heart offers a soul-baring account of a life spent in constant confrontation with death.

In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.

In a world where magic is fading and science begun to ascend, a young surgeon in medical school experiences an obsession so forbidden that its realization will change him forever. "She looked as if she were asleep, still with that slight smile, floating on the thick sargassum, glowing from the emerald tincture that would keep the small crabs and other scavengers from her. She looked otherworldly and beautiful." Sometimes life is not enough. Also including five more stories of dark wonder from Rambo and VanderMeer, from "The Dead Girl's Wedding March" to "The Farmer's Cat." Enter a world of rat suitors, severed arms, and Fungi Et Fruits de Mer, served up with prose both appetizing and uncanny. Dark fantasy has never been quite so decadent . . .

oted pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Kristine Guleserian has opened up her OR, and her career, to author Mark Oristano to create SURGEON'S STORY. Dr. G's life, training and work are discussed in detail, framed around the incredibly dramatic story of a heart transplant operation for a two-year old girl whose own heart was rapidly dying.

Americans have long been fascinated by the personal lives of Hollywood celebrities and the over-hyped magic of plastic surgery. In this entertaining memoir, Dr. Norman Leaf, a highly respected plastic surgeon, reveals the complex and all-too-human connection that exists between these two worlds. In his thirty-five years practicing in Beverly Hills, California, Leaf has encountered the great and those aspiring to be great, seeing them in a different light than the general public. This unique perspective contributes to a touching, inspiring, humorous, and eye-opening journey into a world few have the opportunity to see close-up, while debunking the myths and clearing up the misconceptions about plastic surgery. Are Those Real? is not a kiss-and-tell memoir. With the exception of a few iconic figures, Leaf is careful to protect the identities of his patients. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, Are Those Real? paints an intimate portrait of a master surgeon, while shining a light into a little-known corner of modern culture. In this memoir, Leaf appeals to biography buffs and illustrates the good, bad, happy, and just plain funny aspects of plastic surgery.

A New York Times Bestseller Shortlisted for both the Guardian First Book Prize and the Costa Book Award Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction A Finalist for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize A Finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize A Financial Times Best Book of the Year An Economist Best Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling, and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially lifesaving operation when it all goes wrong? In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to "do no harm" holds a bitter irony. Operations on the brain carry grave risks. Every day, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh must make agonizing decisions, often in the face of great urgency and uncertainty. If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached doctors, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again. With astonishing compassion and candor, Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life. Do No Harm provides unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital. Above all, it is a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions.

When people ask, "How did you get here?" I know they are really asking, "How did you, female of color from Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, get here?" Dr. Rose-Marie Toussaint is unique--a young black woman surgeon specializing in liver and kidney transplants at a major university hospital. How did she get there? In this amazing book Toussaint tells us. Her inspiring story starts when a vodun priest predicts she will grow up to be a physician, then chronicles her rise to the pinnacle of her profession. Rose-Marie's family struggled not only with her parents' chaotic marriage, but with the seismic changes that were beginning to grip their homeland. When the Toussaints emigrated to Miami, Rose-Marie immersed herself in science and math classes, and her dream of becoming a doctor began to take shape. But the road to her dream was littered with obstacles: getting into college, making good grades, getting into medical school, and surviving the grueling, soul-crushing rigors that test every surgeon in the making. Add to that Dr. Toussaint's status as a black female in white male-dominated institutions and one can only admire the courage, fortitude, and determination that propelled her to obtain her M.D.--with some help from a few miracles along the way. As a surgeon, it was her turn to become a miracle worker--for her patients. Dr. Toussaint takes us into hospital rooms to meet desperate patients praying for a life-giving organ, and into the OR to observe the wonder of transplantation. She vividly brings to life the breakneck race against time to prepare transplant patients when an organ suddenly becomes available, the long hours of surgery--sometimes more than 20--that both doctor and patient must endure. And she never forgets that for every life she saves another has been lost. This is a book full of miracles--not least, Rose-Marie Toussaint's own luminous spirit, which lights up every page. To share her journey is a rare opportunity to experience the faith and resilience of a woman dedicated to making miracles happen.

The story of a renowned New York doctor, Robert T. Morris (1857-1945), who struggled with a reactionary profession to pioneer sterility, small incisions, and better wound-healing in surgery. Blessed with abundant energy, sagacity, and long life, he also achieved distinction as a naturalist, horticulturist, and explorer, celebrating nature with brilliant prose and poetry. For those days, Morris was a rare visionary, grounded in science and courageously fighting on the side of suffering humanity, though few remember him today. This is an updated edition of a 1935 classic, brimming with case histories starting from the late Victorian Age. The new book is annotated and illustrated, and includes previously unpublished chapters. "A man who had the courage to be an iconoclast for the purpose of safe-guarding humanity." New York Times (1935) "This is not a textbook but an arresting account of medicine and society in the not too distant past." Howard W. Jones, Jr., M.D., Johns Hopkins and Eastern Virginia Medical Schools (2013) "In 1935, Morris' book was a best-seller; this revision from Gosden and Walker (Morris' granddaughter) could easily do the same ... Far more of a human and social portrait than a medical text, this reissue fills the prescription for fascinating reading." Kirkus (September 16, 2014)