Do No Harm
by Marsh, Henry, Henry Marsh · first published 2014
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Candid memoir by a neurosurgeon on his career, the nature of his profession, and his successes and especially his mistakes; often personal and moving, though not morbid. Suits readers of medicine or mortality.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 disaster
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Do No Harm by Henry Marsh is a great book that gives some perspective on what it’s like to have to make these decisions. In both their success and failure. Here’s an excerpted chapter: http://lithub.com/aneurysm/
on “'It Was the First Time I Cried in the Operating Room'” ↗Non-fiction, best to worst: Henry Marsh, Do No Harm. A brilliant memoir by a neurosurgeon about his work, the nature of his profession, successes and mistakes (especially the latter). Frequently touches or verges into the personal. Not morbid, but often…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗If you've read Marsh's Do No Harm and you're interested in more stories like it, I strongly recommend When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery[1]. Its author-surgeon (Frank Vertosick) lacks much of the compassion shown by…
on “Aneurysm” ↗If you liked When Breath Becomes Air I'd also recommend Do No Harm by Henry Marsh - it's similar in style (maybe like the book Kalanithi would have written at the end of his career). It still touches a lot on mortality. Here's a great chapter from it: http://lithub.com/aneurysm/…
on “Famous Last Words: Three Memoirs of Mortality” ↗Seconded. His followup book as well where he reflects a lot more at a philosophical level. Do No Harm is a real rollercoaster. You can be confronted with death at one moment, then laughing the next as he angrily rails against the inanities of NHS IT policy. (I listened to it as an audiobook - the narrator…
on “I often have to cut into the brain (2012)” ↗…listen to music I would never have thought I'd enjoy, but can't argue Max Martin knows how to write a catchy song!) When breath becomes air http://smile.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/d... Do no harm, Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery http://smile.amazon.com/Do-No-Harm-Stories-Surgery/dp/125006... The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory http://smile.amazon.com/Song-Machine-Inside-Hit-Factory/dp/0...…
on “Ask HN: Book Recommendations?” ↗…Martin. I thought this was a stupid premise (guy travels the universe in a huge ship with cat companions?) but a friend strongly recommended it and I found it stupidly readable and very entertaining. * Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh. Deeply interesting and humane book about the work of an eminent brain surgeon. * The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence In…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗Fantastic book, and if anyone liked this, this one is also fantastic (though better in audiobook, I feel, as the narrator was so emotive): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21086818-do-no-harm
on “Simone Giertz on her brain tumour [video]” ↗May he rest in peace. Glioblastoma is particularly awful, even in the realm of cancer. Two books I found quite interesting on neurosurgery and cancer as a whole. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh and The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
on “John McCain has died” ↗…Societies -- Favorites from this year: Death's End One Man's Meat Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery Cosmicomics Why Quark Rhymes with Pork The Unfolding of Language A Sand County Almanac
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗Oh man, finally a chance to plug the book "Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery" by Henry Marsh. Marsh chronicles his career, and includes (at least) one story about the slip of the scalpel and the... result. Highly recommended.
on “Summary of the Amazon S3 Service Disruption” ↗There was an entertaining tale about this in Henry Marsh's Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery (he's a very significant figure in brain surgery in the UK). There's a lot to it, but it came down to running around the hospital getting mad with the new digital…
on “49% of workers, forced to change passwords, reuse same one with minor change” ↗