Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside

Katrina Firlik

ISBN 10: 0812973402 / ISBN 13: 9780812973402

Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 2007

Beschreibung

Ausreichend/Acceptable: Exemplar mit vollständigem Text und sämtlichen Abbildungen oder Karten. Schmutztitel oder Vorsatz können fehlen. Einband bzw. Schutzumschlag weisen unter Umständen starke Gebrauchsspuren auf. / Describes a book or dust jacket that has the complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc. (which must be noted). Binding, dust jacket (if any), etc may also be worn.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers M00812973402-B

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside
• Verlag: Random House Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0812973402
• ISBN-13: 9780812973402
• Einband: Softcover
• Zustand: acceptable

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Katrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon, one of only two hundred or so women among the alpha males who dominate this high-pressure, high-prestige medical specialty. She is also a superbly gifted writer–witty, insightful, at once deeply humane and refreshingly wry. In Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Dr. Firlik draws on this rare combination to create a neurosurgeon’s Kitchen Confidential–a unique insider’s memoir of a fascinating profession.

Neurosurgeons are renowned for their big egos and aggressive self-confidence, and Dr. Firlik confirms that timidity is indeed rare in the field. “They’re the kids who never lost at musical chairs,” she writes. A brain surgeon is not only a highly trained scientist and clinician but also a mechanic who of necessity develops an intimate, hands-on familiarity with the gray matter inside our skulls. It’s the balance between cutting-edge medical technology and manual dexterity, between instinct and expertise, that Firlik finds so appealing–and so difficult to master.

Firlik recounts how her background as a surgeon’s daughter with a strong stomach and a keen interest in the brain led her to this rarefied specialty, and she describes her challenging, atypical trek from medical student to fully qualified surgeon. Among Firlik’s more memorable cases: a young roofer who walked into the hospital with a three-inch-long barbed nail driven into his forehead, the result of an accident with his partner’s nail gun, and a sweet little seven-year-old boy whose untreated earache had become a raging, potentially fatal infection of the brain lining.

From OR theatrics to thorny ethical questions, from the surprisingly primitive tools in a neurosurgeon’s kit to glimpses of future techniques like the “brain lift,” Firlik cracks open medicine’s most prestigious and secretive specialty. Candid, smart, clear-eyed, and unfailingly engaging, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes glimpse into a world of incredible competition and incalculable rewards.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Katrina Firlik was the first woman admitted to the neurosurgery residency program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the largest–and one of the most prestigious–neurosurgery programs in the country. She is now a private practitioner in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a clinical assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine. She lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, with her husband, a neurosurgeon turned venture capitalist. Visit her online at www.katrinafirlik.com