Surgeon in Blue

Surgeon in Blue PDF Author: Scott McGaugh
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1611458390
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Recounts the life of the Civil War surgeon and how he made battlefield survival possible by creating the first organized ambulance corps and a more effective field hospital system.

Surgeon in Blue

Surgeon in Blue PDF Author: Scott McGaugh
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1611459303
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Jonathan Letterman was an outpost medical officer serving in Indian country in the years before the Civil War, responsible for the care of just hundreds of men. But when he was appointed the chief medical officer for the Army of the Potomac, he revolutionized combat medicine over the course of four major battles—Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg—that produced unprecedented numbers of casualties. He made battlefield survival possible by creating the first organized ambulance corps and a more effective field hospital system. He imposed medical professionalism on a chaotic battlefield. Where before 20 percent of the men were unfit to fight because of disease, squalid conditions, and poor nutrition, he improved health and combat readiness by pioneering hygiene and diet standards. Based on original research, and with stirring accounts of battle and the struggle to invent and supply adequate care during impossible conditions, this new biography recounts Letterman’s life from his small-town Pennsylvania beginnings to his trailblazing wartime years and his subsequent life as a wildcatter and the medical examiner of San Francisco. At last, here is the missing portrait of a key figure of Civil War history and military medicine. His principles of battlefield care continue to be taught to military commanders and first responders.

Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs

Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs PDF Author: Dr. Michael J. Collins
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429923504
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
It looked for a while like Michael Collins would spend his life breaking concrete and throwing rocks for the Vittorio Scalese Construction Company. He liked the work and he liked the pay. But a chance remark by one of his coworkers made him realize that he wanted to involve himself in something bigger, something more meaningful than crushing rocks and drinking beer. In his acclaimed first memoir, Hot Lights, Cold Steel, Collins wrote passionately about his four-year surgical residency at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs turns back the clock, taking readers from his days as a construction worker to his entry into medical school, expertly infusing his journey to become a doctor with humanity, compassion and humor. From the first time he delivers a baby to being surrounded by death and pain on a daily basis, Collins compellingly writes about how medicine makes him confront, in a very deep and personal way, the nature of God and suffering—and how delicate life can be.

Ten Books of Surgery with the Magazine of the Instruments Necessary for It

Ten Books of Surgery with the Magazine of the Instruments Necessary for It PDF Author: Ambroise Pare
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820335487
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) was a French surgeon who specialized in battlefield medicine, especially wound treatment. He was the official royal surgeon for the kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. A humane and dedicated physician, Paré was intensely concerned with the dissemination of knowledge about medicine. He contributed to the development of artificial limbs and also spawned several significant advancements in obstetrics. His medical achievements led Paré to be regarded as the “Father of Modern Surgery.” This edition, published in 1969, is the first English translation of Ten Books of Surgery, and it contains records of many of the most advanced medical practices of the time. Paré describes procedures for the treatment of battle wounds and gangrene, and also deals with ordinary ailments such as bone fractures, contusions, and kidney stones. Paré's work provides valuable insight into an age when the practice of medicine was moved towards the discipline and order of science but was still considerably affected by superstition.

Life on the Thin Blue Line

Life on the Thin Blue Line PDF Author: Gregory Fried
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 1480846295
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
When youre a surgeon, the smallest mistake could result in someone losing their life. Gregory Fried, M.D., who became NYPDs executive chief surgeon in November 1996, after years of serving as deputy chief surgeon, knows this all too well. Responding to police officers being shot or seriously injured in the line of duty, however, brings the pressure to an even higher levelespecially in the middle of one of the worst crime waves in New York Citys history. Looking back at a career that began in the 1970s and continued beyond the September 11 terrorist attacks, Fried shares numerous stories of brave patients that battled life-threatening illnesses and injuries. He also recalls the out-of-control violence that spread throughout New York during his years of service. It was open season on police officers, and he gives readers an intimate look at the life of a police surgeon and what really happens when a police officer is shot in the line of duty. Fried also relives the nightmare of surviving the collapse of the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Broken ribs, herniated disks, fractured bones in his spine, and a massive internal bleed would effectively end his surgical career, but it did nothing to dampen his spirit.

Hot Lights, Cold Steel

Hot Lights, Cold Steel PDF Author: Dr. Michael J. Collins
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429903074
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feeling he is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons. This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income. Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections. Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.

Breakthrough!

Breakthrough! PDF Author: Jim Murphy
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547821883
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
In 1944 a groundbreaking operation repaired the congenital heart defect known as blue baby syndrome. The operation's success brought the surgeon Alfred Blalock international fame and paved the way for open-heart surgery. But the technique had been painstakingly developed by Vivien Thomas, Blalock's African American lab assistant, who stood behind Blalock in the operating room to give him step-by-step instructions. The stories of this medical and social breakthrough and the lives of Thomas, Blalock, and their colleague Dr. Helen Taussig are intertwined in this compelling nonfiction narrative.

A Surgeon's Civil War

A Surgeon's Civil War PDF Author: Daniel M. Holt
Publisher: Kent State University Press
ISBN: 9780873385381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Daniel M. Holt, a successful country doctor in the upstate village of Newport, New York, accepted the position of assistant surgeon in the 121st New York Volunteer Army in August 1862. At age 42 when he was commissioned, he was the oldest member of the staff. But his experience served him well, as his regiment participated in nearly all the major campaigns in the eastern theater of the war--Crampton's Gap before Antietam, Fredericksburg, Salem Church, the Mine Run campaign, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, and Appomattox. In A Surgeon's Civil War, the educated and articulate Holt describes camp life, army politics, and the medical difficulties that he and his colleagues experienced. His reminiscences and letters provide an insider's look at medicine as practiced on the battlefield and offer occasional glimpses of the efficacy of Surgeon General William A. Hammond's reforms as they affected Holt's regiment. He also comments on other subjects, including slavery and national events. Holt served until October 17, 1864 when ill health forced him to resign.

When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air PDF Author: Paul Kalanithi
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812988418
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

Bleeding Blue and Gray

Bleeding Blue and Gray PDF Author: Ira M. Rutkow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780811716727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"A gritty, compelling story well told." - Publishers Weekly "Great storytelling that both Civil War buffs and fans of medical history will surely relish." - Kirkus his landmark history charts the practice and progress of American medicine during the Civil War and retells the story of the war through the care given the wounded. Re-creates the often grisly experiences of wounded and sick Civil War soldiers Details efforts by doctors, nurses, politicians, and others to improve care Highlights the work of volunteers like Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott

Complications

Complications PDF Author: Atul Gawande
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1429972106
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
A brilliant and courageous doctor reveals, in gripping accounts of true cases, the power and limits of modern medicine. Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is -- complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human. Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He also shows us what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. Gawande offers a richly detailed portrait of the people and the science, even as he tackles the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives. At once tough-minded and humane, Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties that lie at the heart of modern medicine, yet always alive to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor. Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.