Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon

It is tempting to try and find a magic in the mystery, but in fact this is a celebration of the magnificence of the brain" Chris Packham"Emerging from his own brusque acceptance of the inevitability of suffering and death is a deep compassion for his patients and their families The brain, with its two hamispheres is somehow both identical to and yet separate from the mind and the self It is fascinating to have it dissected, and with such psychological and clinical penetration, by someone for whom it is horribly untheortical and immediate self- lacerating in his pursuit of the truth" Jane O'Grady, Literary Review"The reason for Marsh's success - besides the precision and elegance of his prose - is surely down to the fact that he grapples with matters of life, death and consciousness on a daily basis. I often wonder about the physical structure of my own brain, about the bits that work and the bits that don't. He is

Marsh also faces up to the burden of responsibility that can come with trying to reduce human suffering. There have been exhilarating highs and devastating lows, but his love for the practice of neurosurgery has never wavered. Following the publication of his celebrated New York Times bestseller Do No Harm, Marsh retired from his full-time job in England to work pro bono in Ukraine and Nepal. The International Bestseller"Consistently entertainingHonesty is abundantly apparent here--a quality as rare and commendable in elite surgeons as one suspects it is in memoirists." The Guardian"Disarmingly frank storytellinghis reflections on death and dying equal those in Atul Gawande's excellent Being Mortal." The EconomistHenry Marsh has spent a lifetime operating on the surgical frontline. Reflecting on what forty years of handling the human brain has taught him, Marsh finds a different purpose in life as he approaches the end of his professional career and a fresh understanding of what matters to us all in the end.. Unearthing memories of his early days as a medical student, and the experiences that shaped him as a young surgeon, he explores the difficulties of a profession that deals in probabilities rather than certainties, and where the overwhelming urge to prolong

He was made a CBE in 2010. HENRY MARSH studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London, 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. . He has been the subject of two documentary films, Your Life in Their Hands, which won the Royal Television Society Gold

Worth reading Very interesting book, this time even more personal than his previous book. There are more admissions, more in-depth insights into his personal history. And there is his fear of death, although in his words, irrational, because it is the fear of eternal nothingness. Actually, he is more afraid of dying after unnecessary suffering. I am wondering whether there will be a third book with even more personal insights.. "Five Stars" according to M. S. Falconer. Love the book fantastic. Wow! A FASCINATING memoir. This was definitely my kind of book-I love medical memoirs. It was engaging and fascinating from the outset. Enormously interesting. Honest, revealing, often eye-opening. As well as the author’s work in the UK, it also tells of his teaching and operating in Nepal, The Ukraine, a masterclass/workshop in the US etc. A fantastic book for me and written in such a way that it is very easy to understand for the non-medical reader.The book has a wonderful conversational style, I got so much out of it, so much knowledge yet it was presented so simply. Reading the book it felt almost as if I was sitting in on on