Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery

I don't think I have ever cried so much while reading a non-fiction book.

Side note: My Kindle told me to review this book after finishing it. Seeing as I am now having to write this on Goodreads I can safely say, Amazon you suck.

Neurosurgery has been my favorite specialty since I delved into the world of medicine. I was initially fascinated by how neurons functioned, astonished at the idea that chemistry and physics were influencing our thoughts. All of this led me to appreciate the incredible complexity of life (There is even an excerpt from the book that discusses this).

This book sustains my admiration for our most remarkable system. Each chapter explores either a past injury or a potential one. Mr. Marsh's thoughtfulness, coupled with the realistic portrayal of challenges, enhances the credibility of the narrative. It demonstrates how to apply effective medical practices on a daily basis, taking into account the desires of the patient and making decisions based on the best available evidence. The inclusion of disease and condition titles with etymology in each chapter heightened my expectations.

If you have the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, I highly recommend it. Jim Barcly's British accent adds an extra layer of authenticity to the narrative.

4.5 stars

I enjoyed this, but I think the summary does this book a disservice. It's not really about hope, it's more one man's struggle to provide adequate healthcare in a system designed to fight you the entire way. Unless you find bureaucracy hopeful, I guess.

There's not really much to summarize here. Henry Marsh was a neurosurgeon within the NHS, and while I'm not familiar with the name, I gather he was a pretty good one too. This book is him looking back on his career, highlighting some of the more notable cases along the way, while also providing insight and philosophizing about the many rules and regulations set up ostensibly to improve care, but really were just to cut costs and make things more difficult. He does quite a bit of ruminating on the cases that didn't go so well, and it's refreshing to see someone confront and admit their mistakes, especially when they're as impactful as these were. Nobody's perfect.

I guess the only thing that bothered me a little about this book is that it hops around so much, even within chapters. It isn't told sequentially/chronologically, but rather case-by-case, and even within the case he sometimes goes back and forth in time discussing various related points/stories. I didn't mind so much because I enjoyed what he had to say on whatever he was talking about, but someone else who better appreciates a linear story might have problems.

All in all, a very readable, enjoyable book.

It's obviously hard to review a memoir ish book like this, but I can only comment on the writing style and what I took home from this.

I absolutely loved reading this book. This is written with so much empathy and so much emotion. Dr.Marsh goes into very vivid detail about what it is like to be doing all these extremely challenging operations. 
I cannot imagine what it is like to tell an entire family that their loved one is going to die. Massive respect to all doctors and surgeons.

This is written in a very humane way with the author expressing all their successes and failures alike with a lot of emotion. 

A must read for any aspiring surgeons, or to anyone who wants to know what it is like to be a neurosurgeon.