Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery

The Instant New York Times best seller!Riveting. ... [Marsh] gives us an extraordinarily intimate, compassionate and sometimes frightening understanding of his vocation. - The New York TimesWinner of the PEN Ackerley PrizeShortlisted for both the Guardian First Book Prize and the Costa Book AwardLonglisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-FictionA Finalist for the Pol Roger Duff Cooper PrizeA Finalist for the Wellcome Book PrizeA Financial Times Best Book of the YearAn Economist Best Book of the YearA Washington Post Notable Book of the YearA New York Times Notable Book of the YearWhat 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.