Customer Reviews

Death on the Learning Curve: The Making of a Surgeon

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I read Death On the Learning Curve while recovering from ankle surgery and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, someday in the future, I plan on reading it again! It was a hard book to put down and I couldn't wait to see the outcome of the medical drama. I now understand how hard it is for interns to make decisions that could cost another's life. While reading this book, I often gasped, laughed, and got teary eyed. You won't be disappointed if you invest your money and time into this book.

This review was written by Linda Gardner.

Dr. Scranton's book is a candid and realistic portrait of internship in the 1970's. Although some things have changed, many more things have remained the same. His attention to details makes this story very real and delightfully entertaining. This is a wonderful read for anyone in the medical profession, but medical knowledge is certainly not needed to follow the story line and thoroughly enjoy.

This book is a very enjoyable read. It is a page-turner of medical suspense that's nearly impossible to put down. If you like TV medical dramas like ER or Grey's Anatomy, then you'll really like this book. It'll also shock you into awareness of what really goes on in teaching hospitals... the ethical dilemmas, life and death situations that require split second actions, the simple mistakes that lead to disaster, the positive outcomes that make the medical doctor's training worthwhile.
The book will make you more aware for when you or family members go into the hospital, all the while entertaining you as you read the book.

It is a thought provoking book that makes you rethink about where you would go for medical assistance -- a medical teaching institution or an established medical practice. I found this book exciting to read and hard to put down; I could not wait to see what has going to happen next. As a wife and mother I have little time to myself but I would gab every 15-20 minutes I could find to continue the journey with the intern on his way to becoming a doctor.

I loved the book. It is written as surgeon's comming of age book about his internship experiences. The author is one of America's foremost surgeons with a real story to tell.

I enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of "Grey's Anatomy" only it takes place in the early 1970's so it's interesting to see how many things have changed since then (women in the surgical field, major technology differences, etc.) Good character development, I felt like I really knew the characters by the end of the book. Sequel! Sequel!

A really excellent book for anyone interested in the medical field. A true insight into doctors in training.

An eye opening account of ones early years in the medical field. Although the author touches on several topics, he ties the subjects together in a compatable manner that draws you into the text from chapter to chapter. The "Hook" is set very early into the reading and holds one throughout the book. It's very hard to put this book down until finished.

Death on the Learning Curve is a novel that brings the daily routine of interns alive! The book reveals the difficult decisions that interns are forced to make as they are learning the procedures for the different medical specialties. This book keeps your attention and as the story and the characters develop, it is difficult to put the book down. It's interesting to learn how the uncertainties, fears, successes and failures affect the lives of these interns who are making every attempt to learn and save lives. Some efforts are successful, some are not successful, but it makes the reader aware of the importance of our medical doctors and hospitals. A very compelling story!

Written by Pierce Scranton, MD, Death on the Learning Curve is a novel based on explicitly real-life quandaries that result from the sheer complexity of medical cases and difficulties involved in learning how to practice medicine - with the result that patients all too often become casualties due to the mistakes of inexperienced interns. Death on the Learning Curve is medical drama grounded in true events, divided into vignettes within each chapter that are in turn based upon the author's first year internship in a busy teaching hospital. From clashes of ego and personality, to the conflict that can result when book training of interns contradicts the personal experience of residents, to ethical quandaries, to incidents of outright misconduct and criminality, Death on the Learning Curve has it all. An utterly enthralling novel, sure to offer keen - if at times frightening - insights into how modern medical teaching hospitals really work.