The Surgeons by Charles R. Morris
November 18th, 2008Title: The Surgeons
Author: Charles R. Morris
Publisher: W.W. Norton(2007)
I love medical books. Though I feel I should qualify that statement because I don’t love medical textbooks. No…I’ve never read one…but I imagine it is filled with big words and gross pictures. What I do love are books about medical things. A while ago I read and reviewed Better by Atul Gawande and The Blue Death by Dr. Robert Morris and both were awesome. I moved on to my next medical book, and this time it is about heart surgery.
The Surgeons: Life and Death in a top Heart Center by Charles R. Morris is a fantastic inside look into Columbia-Presbyterian’s heart unit. Columbia-Presbyterian is generally viewed as one of the best, if not THE best heart hospital in the world. The staff is full of superstars who have made great strides in improving heart surgery. They also have the country’s largest transplant center. Dr. Craig Smith, the chief of heart and lung surgery, and the other doctors agreed to give Morris access to everything and everyone. They also did not try to edit Morris’ writings in any way, allowing him to write about the good and the bad things at the hospital.
Not that there are very many bad things. I’m not an expert, but it seems like that hospital is pretty awesome. They have innovated so many really interesting things to further the safety and lessen the mortality rate of heart surgery. Morris does a really nice job of stopping to explain technical aspects of what goes on at the hospital so dummies like me can understand. The most interesting chapter for me was about transplants. It was amazing to see how efficiently these doctors work in order to harvest the organs to get them to the patient as soon as possible. Many potential transplants will not work because of damage to the donor’s organs, so it is quite a roller coaster as the doctors move from donor to donor until they finally find what they are looking for. Of course, someone had to die in order for any of it to take place…and that’s sad.
Another really interesting, and heartbreaking chapter was about Erika Maynard, a 4 year old girl who needed a heart transplant, but had lung problems. It is really sad to follow the story along as spectacular doctors in three different states did all they could to save this little girl. Morris wanted to include the story as a reminder that doctors…with all that they can do…are not omnipotent.
The entire book is filled with great stories from Morris’ time at the hospital. He also delves into the future of heart surgery, money, and policy…which are interesting chapters in their own right. As an added bonus, there are a couple cool diagrams of the heart that you can refer to as you read the book.
I would highly recommend this book to people with any interest in medicine or the health care system.
Rating: 5 out of 5
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