Publication
W&N (2014), 304 p.
Original publication date
2014
Collections
Awards
Costa Book Awards (Shortlist — Biography — 2014)
The Economist Best Books (2014.20)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2016)
Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize (Shortlist — 2014)
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (Longlist — 2014)
Guardian First Book Award (Shortlist — 2014)
Wellcome Trust Book Prize (Shortlist — 2015)
Ackerley Prize (Winner — 2015)
Best First Biography Prize (Shortlist — 2014)
South Bank Sky Arts Award (Literature — 2015)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2015)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — Nonfiction — 2015)
Description
"Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life. If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached surgeons, this ... brutally honest account will make you think again"--Amazon.com.
User reviews
LibraryThing member aadyer
A quite brilliant little book detailing a series of cases, as experienced by a senior neurosurgeon in a London Teaching Hospital renowned for Neurosurgery. Not only a good collection of fascinating medical cases for the medical reader & lay person alike, but a memoir of the drama, high tension,
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exhilaration, technical wizardry, sadness, & loss that are all part of a modern neurosurgeons life. A fascinating look at people in desperate circumstances & their potential saviour, or not. Extremely highly recommended for all. Show Less
LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
“Do no harm” is paraphrased in the Hippocratic Oath that medical students are all exposed to first thing. It’s the common principal in all medicine, but is especially stressed in neurosurgery, where the possibility for harm is so high. Henry Marsh has been a top neurosurgeon in Great Britain
Each chapter is named for and explores the treatment of a different neurological problem; meningioma, pituitary adenoma, infarct. Each chapter features a different patient; we see how the patient came to Marsh, how the operation went, and sometimes we see how they fared. Not always; sometimes they are whisked way back to the hospital that referred them, rather them leaving them under the care of the surgeon. So there are times that the author had no idea how they ultimately turned out.
The descriptions of the problems and the way they are treated fascinated me, but beware if you are squeamish- the author describes things pretty vividly. But his book is not just about operations; it’s also about his own life, the about the NHS system in England. The system limits not just patient care but the hours doctors can work, which can make arranging long operations difficult. New doctors don’t have time enough to learn all they should. Marsh describes taking this out on nurses, anesthesiologists, clerks, and more- while an empathic, caring, man with patients, he seems to have been an ass to those he worked with at times- and admits it.
I couldn’t put this book down. It was like reading a series of exciting stories, watching Marsh’s expertise and character grow. And I love a good medical description.
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for many years and shares his stories of the trade here. Each chapter is named for and explores the treatment of a different neurological problem; meningioma, pituitary adenoma, infarct. Each chapter features a different patient; we see how the patient came to Marsh, how the operation went, and sometimes we see how they fared. Not always; sometimes they are whisked way back to the hospital that referred them, rather them leaving them under the care of the surgeon. So there are times that the author had no idea how they ultimately turned out.
The descriptions of the problems and the way they are treated fascinated me, but beware if you are squeamish- the author describes things pretty vividly. But his book is not just about operations; it’s also about his own life, the about the NHS system in England. The system limits not just patient care but the hours doctors can work, which can make arranging long operations difficult. New doctors don’t have time enough to learn all they should. Marsh describes taking this out on nurses, anesthesiologists, clerks, and more- while an empathic, caring, man with patients, he seems to have been an ass to those he worked with at times- and admits it.
I couldn’t put this book down. It was like reading a series of exciting stories, watching Marsh’s expertise and character grow. And I love a good medical description.
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LibraryThing member Helenliz
Life and death decisions and whinging about hospital red tape. An odd mixture and it doesn't end so much as stop.
LibraryThing member vguy
Superb! Medical science in clear accessible style, intriguning life-story including his having studied PPE and coming into medicine via dropping out, dramatic and moving stories and a sense of a genuinely decent bloke. His accounts of NHS managers more frightening than anything in surgical theatre.
LibraryThing member ohernaes
Anecdotes from the life of a brain surgeon. Unpolished in a good sense, Marsh seems to be not too concerned about what people think of him. E.g. he is very old style in having little respect for work hour regulations etc., and is not afraid to say so. Think specialization is lacking among surgeons
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in the UK. Much discussion about the risks, uncertainties, and trade-offs involved in brain surgery. Ok. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tobias.Bruell
The book consists of anecdotes from the life of the author, a recognized British neurosurgeon from London.
For someone like me, who is not a health care professional, it was quite interesting to see how the author perceives the doctor-patient relationship. Also the book contains a few very valuable
I would have liked the author to be more elaborate on these general insights and instead indulge less in his long rants about how bad health in managed in Britain; especially his complaining about the insufficient number of available beds could have been shorted for much profit of the reader. Also, I would have liked the book to be a bit shorter in total.
For someone like me, who is not a health care professional, it was quite interesting to see how the author perceives the doctor-patient relationship. Also the book contains a few very valuable
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general insights from neurosurgery, namely, on p.200 where it is argued "that it is highly improbable we have souls" and on p.120 where the author states his believe "that [...] consciousness [...] is in fact the electrochemical chatter of one hundred billion nerve cells".I would have liked the author to be more elaborate on these general insights and instead indulge less in his long rants about how bad health in managed in Britain; especially his complaining about the insufficient number of available beds could have been shorted for much profit of the reader. Also, I would have liked the book to be a bit shorter in total.
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LibraryThing member sianpr
Henry Marsh's autobiography of life as a neurosurgeon is a gripping read but not for the faint hearted. There's quite a lot of gory detail of just about everything that can go wrong with the brain and Marsh is brutally frank about the dangers of neurosurgery and the daily dilemmas that these
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surgeons face. Some heart warming tales and some chilling ones too. Show Less
LibraryThing member dickmanikowski
So-so series of treatment anecdotes by a British neurosurgeon. The overall impression I came away with is how dismal the national health care system seems to be for those unfortunate enough not to be able to afford treatment in a private hospital.
LibraryThing member nyiper
This book needs at least 10 stars---Marsh is such a great writer, incredibly detailed in the descriptions of his experiences---most impressively, adding his emotional opinions about everything. His accomplishments in one lifetime are extraordinary. Fascinating reading!!!
LibraryThing member Susan.Macura
As one of the top neurosurgeons in Britain, it is insightful into Marsh’s character that he does not include any form of doctor in his title, nor do his patients address him as such. He is simply Mr. Marsh. His look at what he has done over the years is very insightful and reflective as he tells
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stories not just of his successes, but cases where he made mistakes and his patients suffered because of them. He reminds us that medicine is not like TV, not everyone is cured miraculously and that we need to be mindful of these facts when making medical decisions. Excellent book. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
"I often have to cut into the brain, and it is something I hate doing," is the opening sentence in this engaging memoir. Each chapter is titled after a disease of the brain, a few I was familiar with: Trauma, Infarct, Medullablastoma, (which I was familiar with since my niece suffered this when she
Marsh states that frequently the most difficult part of brain surgery is deciding whether or not to operate, since the risks are usually great, benefits may be nominal, and mistakes, even when death is avoided, can be devastating. In Marsh's view, mistakes are "unacceptable, but inevitable," and he does not shy away from including in his stories his mistakes as well as his success stories.
In addition to his stories about his patients, his stories about the state of the science of the medicine of the brain, and the stories about his personal life, I also enjoyed his wry sense of humor, mostly in regard to his dealings with the British health bureaucracy.
3 1/2 stars
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was 6--she is now 25 and in good health, although for Marsh's patient the cancer recurred when the patient was in his 40's), but most of which I hadn't heard of, i.e. Akinetic Mutism, Neurotmesis, Empyema, Astrocytoma, Oligodendroglioma, etc. etc. Don't those mysterious words just make you salivate to read this book? (Just kidding). However, despite these esoteric chapter titles, Marsh's stories of his experiences in neurosurgery are highly engaging and eminently readable. Marsh states that frequently the most difficult part of brain surgery is deciding whether or not to operate, since the risks are usually great, benefits may be nominal, and mistakes, even when death is avoided, can be devastating. In Marsh's view, mistakes are "unacceptable, but inevitable," and he does not shy away from including in his stories his mistakes as well as his success stories.
In addition to his stories about his patients, his stories about the state of the science of the medicine of the brain, and the stories about his personal life, I also enjoyed his wry sense of humor, mostly in regard to his dealings with the British health bureaucracy.
3 1/2 stars
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LibraryThing member annbury
"Brain surgery" has always been right up there with "rocket science" as an exemplar of really, really tough things to do, and brain surgeons in the popular view are medical magicians. Henry Marsh's memoir of the real life of a real brain surgeon makes it very clear that brain surgeons are fallible
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human beings, not magicians or knights in shining armor. Without in the least condescending to the reader, he talks about what it is that he actually does, the physical reality of operating on the human brain. But he also talks about the psychic reality. He shares his wonder at the fact that the physical brain is inextricable from the mind and heart and the other things that make us human. He shares the bitterness of knowing that surgery sometimes won't help, and sometimes fails. And he shares stories of his own mistakes. This book taught more about doctors than about operations -- most critically, that doctors are people, as much as we want to turn them into minor deities who can resolve all our ills. Before closing, I should say that this book is brilliantly written, in a clear and lucid style, with an underling gentleness that makes one wish there were more doctors like Henry Marsh Show Less
LibraryThing member MaggieFlo
I really enjoyed this book because Henry Marsh is such a compassionate, fallible, realistic and caring human being. Although there are some descriptions of actual brain surger which I had to skip over, the book deals with the different types of tumours which can attack the brain, some of which are
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benign and some are malignant. March tells us about his routine on Sunday evenings which involve a visit to his patients scheduled for surgery the next day. Little do they know that the great Doctor suffers from anxiety, fear and insecurity before he actually starts the operation. March is not afraid to talk about the very serious mistakes he has made or his successes. He is a great critic of the British NHS which he views as becoming increasingly bureaucratic and less caring for its patients. Good book. Show Less
LibraryThing member lanewillson
Henry Marsh is a world renown neurosurgeon, a man who has dedicated his life and career to accepting as his task some of the most challenging and perilous medical procedures, a valiant combatant against the bureaucracy of England’s National Health Service, and a sad and pathetic poster boy for
Mr. Marsh, as I was surprised to learn physicians are called in England rather than Dr. Marsh, entered neurosurgery as an unintended complication that arose from his young son’s successful treatment of a brain tumor. The high stakes of his work and the humility and honesty with which he talks about his successes and failures are breathtaking. There is no pretense of divinity when a patient is given back their life or at least some hope of more time. Likewise, Mr. Marsh pulls seeks no refuge when talking about the operations he’s “made a mess of” leaving the patient’s life wrecked. His candor and self-honesty make his willingness to continue to enter operating theaters with so much at stake downright miraculous. Although he would likely choose an adjective more clinical in nature and less dramatic sounding.
NHS England sounds like a nightmare bequeathed to Her Majesty’s Government by Alfred Hitchcock. Several frightening scenarios are like the one where Marsh finds himself wandering different wards of his hospital trying to find a patient on his list for brain surgery the next morning. He has yet to meet the patient who was an emergency admission from the previous evening. If there is anything that challenges the English love of tea, then surely it is an affinity for bureaucracy. SHO’s (Senior House Officers), Registrars, Porters, and other formal designations for medical personnel sounded like something from a Terry Gilliam movie, and at times I could almost hear the theme from Brazil.
Almost at the close of his memoir, Mr. Marsh draws a sad and sickening line in the sand where his compassion comes to an end. Describing a patient who is an alcoholic, one who Mr. Marsh has just had to inform has a very short time to live, Marsh takes consolation in the fact that man’s condition is due at least in part to the choices he has made in life, all alcoholics and addicts having chosen their path. No doubt my strong reaction to this passage is due to my addiction to alcohol, and my career in helping others who are addicted find freedom. Mr. Marsh is far too brilliant a physician to have reached his understanding of addiction out of ignorance, and while I admire his openness and honesty, I find him to be sad and pathetic.
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the border where compassion’s bloom dies, and the desert of callousness begins. Mr. Marsh, as I was surprised to learn physicians are called in England rather than Dr. Marsh, entered neurosurgery as an unintended complication that arose from his young son’s successful treatment of a brain tumor. The high stakes of his work and the humility and honesty with which he talks about his successes and failures are breathtaking. There is no pretense of divinity when a patient is given back their life or at least some hope of more time. Likewise, Mr. Marsh pulls seeks no refuge when talking about the operations he’s “made a mess of” leaving the patient’s life wrecked. His candor and self-honesty make his willingness to continue to enter operating theaters with so much at stake downright miraculous. Although he would likely choose an adjective more clinical in nature and less dramatic sounding.
NHS England sounds like a nightmare bequeathed to Her Majesty’s Government by Alfred Hitchcock. Several frightening scenarios are like the one where Marsh finds himself wandering different wards of his hospital trying to find a patient on his list for brain surgery the next morning. He has yet to meet the patient who was an emergency admission from the previous evening. If there is anything that challenges the English love of tea, then surely it is an affinity for bureaucracy. SHO’s (Senior House Officers), Registrars, Porters, and other formal designations for medical personnel sounded like something from a Terry Gilliam movie, and at times I could almost hear the theme from Brazil.
Almost at the close of his memoir, Mr. Marsh draws a sad and sickening line in the sand where his compassion comes to an end. Describing a patient who is an alcoholic, one who Mr. Marsh has just had to inform has a very short time to live, Marsh takes consolation in the fact that man’s condition is due at least in part to the choices he has made in life, all alcoholics and addicts having chosen their path. No doubt my strong reaction to this passage is due to my addiction to alcohol, and my career in helping others who are addicted find freedom. Mr. Marsh is far too brilliant a physician to have reached his understanding of addiction out of ignorance, and while I admire his openness and honesty, I find him to be sad and pathetic.
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LibraryThing member stellarexplorer
A delightful and somewhat irreverent tale of neurosurgery. Marsh’s short book reads like an apology. You can’t be a neurosurgeon without contributing to disaster, that you were trying to help notwithstanding. Marsh is sorry. He spent sixteen hours delicately dissecting away the brainstem tumor
So I mentioned delight? Yes, Marsh is modest and self-effacing. Brain surgery is NOT brain surgery. It is instead a manual skill, like plumbing, with a life at stake. The essence of brain surgery is not the operating, but the judgment about whether to operate. It is an ever-present possibility that the surgeon will confront a damaged and disabled patient in the recovery room. The first line: “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing.”
This book is gripping, and I consumed it rapidly. I could almost become the surgeon tunneling carefully through the darkness, judiciously avoiding vascular land mines, and emerging after tense hours in the middle of the brain, face to face with a monstrous malignant adversary.
Do No Harm shines light on a world unknown to most readers. Marsh lives in a realm of peril and disaster and sometimes spectacular success. Remarkably, he tells us about it with humor and humility, and no small measure of humanity.
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of an unfortunate man, and just at the threshold of cure, Marsh nicked a microscopic blood vessel and the man’s life is destroyed. To add to Marsh’s guilt, he visits a nursing home years later, and spies this man sitting motionless in a corner.So I mentioned delight? Yes, Marsh is modest and self-effacing. Brain surgery is NOT brain surgery. It is instead a manual skill, like plumbing, with a life at stake. The essence of brain surgery is not the operating, but the judgment about whether to operate. It is an ever-present possibility that the surgeon will confront a damaged and disabled patient in the recovery room. The first line: “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing.”
This book is gripping, and I consumed it rapidly. I could almost become the surgeon tunneling carefully through the darkness, judiciously avoiding vascular land mines, and emerging after tense hours in the middle of the brain, face to face with a monstrous malignant adversary.
Do No Harm shines light on a world unknown to most readers. Marsh lives in a realm of peril and disaster and sometimes spectacular success. Remarkably, he tells us about it with humor and humility, and no small measure of humanity.
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LibraryThing member Carolee888
I loved Do No Harm by Henry Marsh and did not want it to end. It tells of his work as a neurosurgeon with brutal honesty and intense compassion. He reminds me so much of my father who was also a doctor but not a neurosurgeon. One thing that I already knew stood out, that doctors will admit their
Henry Marsh begins each chapter with a different kind of brain disease or brain problem and discusses cases. His life is deeply affected by his feelings for the patient. He worries over how to break the news to the patient when there was no point in operating, when the operation might only buy a few months or maybe five years. He carefully thinks about how to break disastrous news to the parents of children. He points out the absurdities of the health system and often left me laughing or shaking my head. He did not go along with the status quo, he stood out for making his own decisions and owning the consequences good or disastrous. I was deeply touched by his and his sister’s care for their dying mother and how deeply they loved her. He is deeply human.
I had trigeminal neuralgia, a condition, which is in the book,back in the 1970s. Luckily for me the last ditch hope of a medicine stopped the intensely painful jolts of pain across my face on my right side. Now I understand my neurologist told me with nervous gulp that the only other resort was surgery. He looked so scared himself that I didn’t ask him about the risks. Now, I know.
I now know that when a surgeon rushes through a surgical discussion without serious thought to what it is to be on “the other side” that they may have not have been a patient themselves.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about medicine and the human side of being a neurosurgeon.
I received this ARC from the publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review.
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mistakes to other doctors about not so much to others. He goes through his own mistakes and he learns from them but always with regret that he made a mistake the first time. Like when he took out most of a brain tumor and decided to try to get the rest out. The patient would have been much better off if he had stopped when he was ahead. That stood as a lesson to not let pride get into the way of doing the best that you can for your patient.Henry Marsh begins each chapter with a different kind of brain disease or brain problem and discusses cases. His life is deeply affected by his feelings for the patient. He worries over how to break the news to the patient when there was no point in operating, when the operation might only buy a few months or maybe five years. He carefully thinks about how to break disastrous news to the parents of children. He points out the absurdities of the health system and often left me laughing or shaking my head. He did not go along with the status quo, he stood out for making his own decisions and owning the consequences good or disastrous. I was deeply touched by his and his sister’s care for their dying mother and how deeply they loved her. He is deeply human.
I had trigeminal neuralgia, a condition, which is in the book,back in the 1970s. Luckily for me the last ditch hope of a medicine stopped the intensely painful jolts of pain across my face on my right side. Now I understand my neurologist told me with nervous gulp that the only other resort was surgery. He looked so scared himself that I didn’t ask him about the risks. Now, I know.
I now know that when a surgeon rushes through a surgical discussion without serious thought to what it is to be on “the other side” that they may have not have been a patient themselves.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about medicine and the human side of being a neurosurgeon.
I received this ARC from the publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review.
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LibraryThing member rowls100
Very interesting book that kept me gripped. I felt a bit ill at times reading parts of it but in my opinion that shows how good the writing is. I have so much respect for Henry Marsh & surgeons in general. This book is a stark reminder of the turmoil they have to go through on a daily basis. Only
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missed out on 5 stars as I hoped for a more conclusive ending but that shouldn't detract from the fact that this book is excellent. Show Less
LibraryThing member neurodrew
My transgender migraine patient loaned me this book, having been impressed by the frankness and tone of the book. This is an autobiographical recounting of many cases operated on by the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh in Britain. He organizes his chapters around various neurosurgical diagnoses, recounting
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in each a personal history of a case, including sometimes the details of the operation, in others the fights with the administration of the National Health Service, and his adventures into the Ukraine, to do surgery on advanced tumors and other lesions. He really writes well, and spares none of his failings, but through it all is the arrogance and self-importance of a neurosurgeon. Show Less
LibraryThing member gbelik
This seems like a very honest book. While acknowledging the power and thus arrogance that comes with successfully working at the edge of his patient's life and consciousness, he is aware of the mistakes made and harm done. It seems to me that a life lived doing the best one can, kindly, while
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keeping a dose of humility is indeed a life well lived. (I couldn't help thinking of Charlotte' Web; when Charlotte wove the word "Humble" into her web to describe Wilber, she said the word meant "not proud".) Show Less
LibraryThing member GlennBell
I think I would like Dr. Marsh if I met him. He is honest and tries to do his best for his patients. I found his discussion educational and interesting. His book also provides information on the health system in England. I recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine and especially
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neurosurgery. Show Less
LibraryThing member Steve_Walker
There is an aura around the words "Heart Surgery" and "Brain Surgery". Henry Marsh takes us inside the field of Neurosurgery and gives us the story of doctor and patient. An excellent and well written book.
Media reviews
As a young doctor just starting out, Henry Marsh watched a neurosurgeon operate on a woman’s brain, going after a dangerous aneurysm that could rupture and kill her. This kind of surgery — taking place several inches inside the patient’s head — was perilous, and often compared, as he writes
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in his riveting new memoir, to bomb disposal work, “though the bravery required is of a different kind as it is the patient’s life that is at risk and not the surgeon’s.”
There was “the chase,” as the surgeon stalked his prey deep within the brain, then “the climax as he caught the aneurysm, trapped it, and obliterated it with a glittering, spring-loaded titanium clip, saving the patient’s life.” More than that, Dr. Marsh goes on, “the operation involved the brain, the mysterious substrate of all thought and feeling, of all that was important in human life — a mystery, it seemed to me, as great as the stars at night and the universe around us. The operation was elegant, delicate, dangerous and full of profound meaning. What could be finer, I thought, than to be a neurosurgeon?”
Dr. Marsh would become one of Britain’s foremost neurosurgeons, and in this unflinching book, “Do No Harm,” he gives us an extraordinarily intimate, compassionate and sometimes frightening understanding of his vocation. . . . . Show Less
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9781780225920
UPC
642688062095
Physical description
304 p.; 7.83 x 5.16 inches
Pages
304