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 Times
Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize
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
A New York Times 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.
