Customer Reviews

When the Air Hits Your Brain

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I'm a neurosurgeon myself.I'm still so moved by the stories told by the author.They reflected the true life in my daily practice and circumstances.They seems funny but actually sad inside, filled with sorrow and tears of both the patients and doctors. I strongly recommend this book to those who would like to participate in this field of medical speciality and to those who would like to understand the real life of a neurosurgeon!

I had brain surgery for epileptic seizures and was cured. But as a result of this experience, I've continued to be fascinated with medicine and surgery.

This book gave me the chance to see what it may feel like to be on the other side. Dr. Vertosick takes the reader through his medical residency and through the long hours of being yelled at and belittled while trying to make people well. I think anyone who wants to go into medicine needs to read this book.

It's scary, but exciting at the same time! It's like you are going through this experience with the author and you want to finish reading the book so you can know you survived the journey and accomplished your goal.

If you are not interested in medicine or the operating room, you can probably live without this information. But for everyone else, it's a must read!

The history of neurosurgery is a fascinating one, however, even more interesting is to see how it has developed over the last century since, for example, the legendary Dr. Harvey Cushing forged the techniques of brain surgery over seventy years ago. `When the Air Hits Your Brain - Tales of Neurosurgery' is a compelling collection of tales written with erudition and sensitivity with at times gruesome detail of brain operations that sometimes were successful and other times not. As Dr. Vertosick proposes in his introduction, that, for the most part, a surgeon learns more from the failures than the successes; therefore most of the stories within are tragedies - failures that paved the way to future successes. For those interested in the world of neurosurgery, this book should more than satisfy as it covers a vast array of different cases as well as the general ambience and culture of this very specialized profession.

The author begins his tale as a burgeoning medical student, internship, ending with his last year as Chief Resident. Interestingly, his last year, from his perspective was his worst. He explains that being a Chief Resident is a precarious position, because you have to continue to cow tow to the attending staff and the junior residents continue to look upon you as just another taskmaster, a kind of in-house bully, ensuring the skills required are learned. Vertosick explains the position as "straddling two worlds, "...a sergeant in the surgical military, friend to neither enlisted man nor officer, endowed with great responsibilities but given little true authority." (P.254)

There are many miraculous and downright bizarre cases chronicled throughout the text. One of the strange cases was the woman who had been shot between the eyes by her drunken and irate boyfriend. Dr. Vertosick arrived hurriedly from home to the ER to find the woman in the waiting room, her head wrapped in a bloody towel, watching the television with a police officer by her side. Taking her into the examination room, the woman had indeed been shot directly between the eyes, and the exist wound, at the top of the back of her skull. The bullet, upon examining the exit wound dropped to the floor, where the police officer quickly retrieved it and left the room. Fortunately for the woman, the bullet had hit the skull, ricochet upward and bouncing, more so, rattling, between her brain and the top of her skull, lodging without damage. What truly amazed Vertosick, was the woman's attitude, because she continued to make excuses for her boyfriend, claiming he didn't really mean to shoot her in the head, he was just a little angry with her. She didn't realize how close to death she actually came.

There are many other strange and touching stories, the most heart wrenching being infants and young children born with brain related illnesses which the staff could not treat. What I admired in this text was Dr. Vertosick's honesty and his efforts to steel himself from becoming too close to his patients - he called it becoming a psychopathic doctor, however, in the end, he discovers a middle way.

Frank Vertosick is a very good writer and I hope he finds the time in the future to write another book about the profession.

I enjoyed reading "When The Air Hits Your Brain". Dr vertosick talked about his medical training from a third year medical student to his chief residency in Neurosurgery. Dr. vertosick candidly talked about some Neurosurgical cases and their outcome. He made me laugh, and sometimes he made me cry. There is a wealth of information about the structure and function of the brain which Dr Vertosick relates to things in everyday life so it's easy for everyone to understand. One can see the warmth and compassion of Dr Vertosick in his writing. I highly recommend this easy to read, and well written book.

Originally published in 1996, "When the Air Hits Your Brain," by Dr. Frank Vertosick, is a mesmerizing insider's look at "an arrogant occupation" whose practitioners operate on the spinal cord and the human brain ("a trillion nerve cells storing electrical patterns more numerous than the water molecules of the world's oceans"). A neurosurgeon must be supremely confident in his ability to get the job done; if he were to dwell on everything that could possibly go wrong during a procedure, he would be too terrified to operate. Because of the high potential for missteps, neurosurgical training is an arduous seven years of hell. Before he starts treating "brain cancers, spinal cord injuries, head trauma, [and] lethal hemorrhages," a trainee must endure a grueling regimen of study which includes repeated humiliation at the hands of verbally abusive mentors. This is not a profession for the faint-hearted, for when neurosurgery is unsuccessful, the results can be catastrophic. Even if the patient survives, his cognition, speech, movement, and vision may be forever compromised. In the words of Gary Stancik, a sardonic chief resident, the brain is like a '66 Cadillac: "It was built for performance, not for easy servicing."

Vertosick fell into neurosurgery by happenstance. He spent some time as a steelworker, majored in theoretical physics, and wound up choosing medicine by default. In the years to come, he would have to adjust to impossibly long hours, inadequate sleep, and hit-or-miss meals. He would become adept at performing quickly and efficiently under pressure. However, none of his earlier experiences would fully prepare him for the emotional roller-coaster that lay ahead. He was destined to endure a trial by fire when faced with such cases as a six-week old infant born with a malignant tumor, a twenty-two year old woman with devastating multiple injuries resulting from an auto accident, a Vietnam veteran with an intracranial aneurysm, and a twenty-eight year old pregnant woman with a lump of cancerous cells in her brain. Fortunately, Dr. Vertosick enjoyed some notable successes; he was instrumental in helping a number of gravely ill patients resume normal lives.

Although it is vital to care about and communicate with each patient, Vertosick argues that it is a mistake to become too personally invested in each outcome. Hardest of all, one must accept the unpleasant fact that even brain surgeons can commit colossal blunders. On one occasion, Vertosick sank into despair when one of his patients died because of what he perceived to be his incompetence. He could have given in to his torment and self-loathing and abandoned his career, but he ultimately decided to "stop moping over one postoperative death." In the words of the aforementioned Gary, "Yeah, it's a nightmare, but that's neurosurgery. Land of nightmares."

"When the Air Hits Your Brain" is impeccably and stylishly written, with fascinating asides about the complexities of medicine and the human body. Vertosick's wry and irreverent black humor serves as a welcome respite from the book's often grim subject matter. In his postscript, which was written in 2007, the author provides updates on the changes that have occurred in the last decade: by law, residents are not allowed to work more than eighty hours a week, aneurysms may now be treated without resorting to invasive surgery, and new technologies such as deep brain stimulation and "frameless stereotaxis (a kind of GPS system for navigating the brain)" are revolutionizing the field. This is an intelligent, moving, and enlightening book and one of the most powerful and intimate accounts that I have ever read on the making of a surgeon.

It's been a while since I read this book, but I can't think of any book I've read in the last year that I've enjoyed more. It gave me a glimpse into the arcane world of neurosurgery in a way that was completely understandable and by turns touching, frightening and -- hilarious. Trust me.

Interesting, accessible to non-medical readers, reads quickly. Includes good medical/scientific and emotional detail.

I never thought I see the day when a physician suggests that they aren't God on earth, and see themselves as fallible. Half the time Dr. Vertosick had me in stitches, part of the time I was close to tears, and a couple of times I could have throttled the guy! Since being familiar with neuroscientists and working in the chief of Neuropathology's lab at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, I certainly saw my fair share of residents who were so full of themselves that the rest of us could hardly stand being around them. Dr. Vertosick reminds of us of the hard work, and the emotional risks of becoming a doctor, and he has an outrageous sense of humor. His writing is spectacular, and I put him up their with Oliver Sacks in writing about patients as people, and not just as a physical body with something wrong with it. A thoroughly wonderful book, which I enjoyed immensely! Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Vertosick offers the history of his neurosurgical training, and it's a fascinating trip from callow student to practicing professional. Rare indeed is the book that can bring a tear to my eye, but this one did (the chapter titled "Rebecca"). Vertosick is an engaging author who wraps the story of his training in well crafted prose.

My only complaint is that the book was too short; I'd have liked to know even more. Nevertheless, on the strength of this outing, I have found and read Vertosick's two other books "Why We Hurt" and "The Genius Within". Both are also excellent reads, although "Genius" is not for the scientifically faint-hearted.

Doctor Vertosick has portrayed what it takes to become a neurosurgeon. He is very candid in both the "egotistical" and the horrendous events which make not only a great neurosurgeon, but more importantly a compassionate doctor. It is a very fast and intertaining book. A "must" if you want to understand your neurosurgeon better.