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Do No Harm

Do No Harm
Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
Henry Marsh

There are so many books we could recommend when it comes to medicine – some will fill you with optimism and fuel your desire for public service, others will engulf you as the ‘reality’ of everyday life and struggles in the NHS hits home.   

The book above has been written by an absolutely wonderful, often irascible, neurosurgeon (now retired) – Henry Marsh.  If you have read it, you will know what we mean, when we say he manages to combine deep compassion and empathy, with the thinking and skill of a Rolls Royce engineer.  Of course, things can go very wrong when it comes to brain surgery, and they often do. Dr Marsh doesn’t shy away from and of the disasters, and his favoured word is ‘catastrophic’ when describing devastating surgeries that have had horrific results.  Sadly, Dr Marsh’s retirement was hastened by the threat of disciplinary action by an NHS manager, and therein lies another story.  

Dr Marsh has recently published a new book –
Admissions:  A Life in Brain Surgery –
which is no less engaging, inspiring and wonderfully emotive.