When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Jr Vertosick

When the Air Hits Your Brain

Tales From Neurosurgery

Frank Jr Vertosick

WW Norton · Print & ebook · February 26, 2008

"Dramatic, moving, and utterly fascinating." —New York Times Book Review The story of one man's evolution from naïve and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon.

Buy on Amazon

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
A surgeon’s hard-won education unfolds through patient portraits, procedural detail, and unsparing humor.
Themes
Neurosurgery and patient care, A surgeon’s professional development, The mysteries of the mind
Pacing
Reflective

Nearest books

Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Lives in Medicine.

  1. War DoctorDavid Nott, Henry Marsh63% match
  2. When Death Becomes LifeJoshua D. Mezrich63% match
  3. Cook County ICUCory Franklin MD, John Pruden53% match
  4. The Bright HourNina Riggs49% match
  5. Being MortalAtul Gawande53% match
  6. Working StiffJudy Melinek MD, T.J. Mitchell56% match
  7. What My Bones KnowStephanie Foo51% match
  8. Good Morning, MonsterCatherine Gildiner50% match

For younger readers: Gifted Hands, Revised Kids Edition, Phineas Gage, Ugly

Start with three books, and this one can be the first.

Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.

Start with this book

About this book

"Dramatic, moving, and utterly fascinating." —New York Times Book Review The story of one man's evolution from naïve and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. With poignant insight and humor, Frank Vertosick Jr., MD, describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22-caliber bullet lodged in his skull.

Continue reading

Told through intimate portraits of Vertosick’s patients and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed descriptions of surgical procedures, When the Air Hits Your Brain—the culmination of decades spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft—illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room.

Inside the Operating Room

A surgeon’s hard-won education unfolds through patient portraits, procedural detail, and unsparing humor.

Come here for

  • Intimate patient portraits and the human stakes of neurosurgery

Expect

  • Detailed surgical accounts, balanced by poignant insight and humor

Where it sits

Lives in Medicine74%
Neurosurgery46%
Neuroscience32%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Neurosurgery
Authors
Frank Jr Vertosick
Publisher
WW Norton
Published
February 26, 2008
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Neurosurgery and patient care · A surgeon’s professional development · The mysteries of the mind
Reading lane
Neurosurgery