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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
medium-paced
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
informative
medium-paced
If you have an interest in medical history, I highly recommend this book. As a lay-person who’s had numerous surgeries, I found this book very interesting. The book is brilliantly written in 324 pages, split up into categories of surgery per chapter. The information is basic, but informative, and entertaining.
I also recommend this book if you’re into “ick” and gruesome details. I really enjoyed that part, mostly because it makes the history come alive. It gives you mental imagery that goes along with exactly how horrifying, gruesome, and gritty surgical medicine used to be.
I also recommend this book if you’re into “ick” and gruesome details. I really enjoyed that part, mostly because it makes the history come alive. It gives you mental imagery that goes along with exactly how horrifying, gruesome, and gritty surgical medicine used to be.
Good read. Hollingham chose to organize his vignettes by theme/type of surgery and fully acknowledges that he's not covering the whole field.
What is does cover is written with a wry nod to the batsh*t craziness/megalomania of the innovators in surgical procedures and care improvements.
Back to Galen and then forward again, through times when surgeons were convinced that the more it hurt, the healthier it was, to the great operating theatres in the UK where the sawdust under the table was there to catch the limbs and blood from numerous amputations.
The transplant stories are uplifting in a way, but also point to how vulnerable people are to the experimentation of the surgeons--after all, they're doctors and must know what they're doing. Right?
The section on reconstructive surgery is also pretty gruesome. Sheer blood and guts, sure, but also in the ethical questions that are raised. Like the guy who got a new hand and then despised it so much he got it removed again...
What is does cover is written with a wry nod to the batsh*t craziness/megalomania of the innovators in surgical procedures and care improvements.
Back to Galen and then forward again, through times when surgeons were convinced that the more it hurt, the healthier it was, to the great operating theatres in the UK where the sawdust under the table was there to catch the limbs and blood from numerous amputations.
The transplant stories are uplifting in a way, but also point to how vulnerable people are to the experimentation of the surgeons--after all, they're doctors and must know what they're doing. Right?
The section on reconstructive surgery is also pretty gruesome. Sheer blood and guts, sure, but also in the ethical questions that are raised. Like the guy who got a new hand and then despised it so much he got it removed again...