Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles
Keith Black, Arnold Mann, Forest Whitaker (Foreword by)Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Keith Black, MD is among the best and brightest neurosurgeons and scientists in the world, responsible for revolutionary research and groundbreaking procedures of which most of the medical establishment never dared to dream. In BRAIN SURGEON, Black invites the reader to shadow his daily journeys into the brain, or, what he calls "tiger country": the treacherous territory one enters when performing brain surgery, wherein one wrong move, one small mistake, can cost the patient's life. Candidly rendered, BRAIN SURGEON combines amazing patient stories and fascinating insights into the inner workings of the brain. It also offers a window into the remarkable mind of the medical hero himself, who possesses the unflinching confidence of a master surgeon alongside overwhelming respect and affection for his patients and an unwavering optimism for the future.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Black, chair of the department of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, reflects on his extraordinary life and career. As an African-American growing up in Alabama and Ohio, Black benefited from the emphasis his scholarly parents put on learning: "I was brought up to believe there was nothing that I could not do," and he published his first scientific paper at age 17 and went on to pioneer blood-brain barrier research to enable chemotherapy drugs to reach brain tumors directly. Introducing the reader to his colleagues and patients, Black tours the interior of the brain with detailed accounts of delicate surgical procedures: "Under the microscope I could see the delicate latticework of blood vessels covering the brainstem, all of which absolutely had to be preserved." Documenting the risks and rewards of the procedures he performs, he also examines racial hurdles he had to leap to become a neurosurgeon. Black is equally skilled as an author, alternating incisive writing about incisions with his personal memoir, insightful and inspirational. (Mar. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Neurosurgeon Black (director, Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Inst., Cedars-Sinai Medical Ctr.) gives readers a glimpse into his life's work, beginning when he was a child who dissected bugs and had a fascination with science and medicine. Today, he removes life-threatening brain tumors from patients by going into delicate parts of the brain he calls "tiger country"-where one misstep can have devastating consequences. Black renders the complexities of the surgeries accessible for laypeople, and his descriptions of patients who seek his care can be exciting. Despite an overuse of metaphors, such as "hydra-headed monster" and "growing like an ogre under a bridge" to describe tumors, this well-written book presents an engrossing view into the life of a surgeon performing life-saving medical miracles. Recommended for larger public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ11/15/08.]
—Dana Ladd