Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
Mar 2014 · Hachette UK
4.6star
160 reviewsreport
Ebook
320
Pages
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About this ebook
'Enthralling' GUARDIAN
'Incredibly absorbing ... astonishingly candid' Bill Bryson
Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature
Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; Duff Cooper Prize; Wellcome Book Prize; Guardian First Book Award; and Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
What is it like to be a brain surgeon?
How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?
How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?
DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions.
'Incredibly absorbing ... astonishingly candid' Bill Bryson
Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature
Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; Duff Cooper Prize; Wellcome Book Prize; Guardian First Book Award; and Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
What is it like to be a brain surgeon?
How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?
How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?
DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life's most agonising decisions.
Ratings and reviews
4.6
160 reviews
Anatoly Kunaev
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January 14, 2019
I was dreaming about being a neurosurgeon since I was a little boy. But further found myself in IT. In his book Henry Marsh explained me why neurosurgery couldn't be my favorite work. Since I read it I've never regreted missed opportunity anymore. This book discovered not only the ethical medical issues but also the new side of the british culture disclosed for me for the first time.
6 people found this review helpful
Dennis Hanmer
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January 4, 2015
The humanity shines through like a beacon. Having worked myself for forty years in the NHS I understand the frustrated cynicism which he sometimes expresses, the result of many years political meddling. However there are many like Henry Marsh who work in the NHS and I for one am grateful.
1 person found this review helpful
Mark Taylor
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August 6, 2017
A compassionate and self-aware neurosurgeon gives an apparently very honest and revealing account of his career as he approaches retirement. I have just finished it at 3.45am as I could not stop reading. Excellent.
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Henry Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St George's Hospital in London in 1987, where he still works full time. He has been the subject of two major documentary films, YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS, which won the ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY GOLD MEDAL, and THE ENGLISH SURGEON, featuring his work in the Ukraine, which won an EMMY. He was made a CBE in 2010. He is married to the anthropologist and writer Kate Fox. Visit his website at http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com/
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