Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles

An excellent book, I will give this book to the college students and high school students interested in a career in medicine. By telling the stories of seven patients, Dr. Black provided insight into the political, academic, and clinical world of medicine. From a political perspective, the readers gain an understanding of who gets awarded National Science Foundation grants. From an academic view, Dr. Black allows the reader to peek into the university and see its prejudices, bureaucracy, and intellectual silos. With personal stories, the author takes the reader into the hospital, the organization that has to decide which uninsured patients get treated, how much information it discloses to the patient, and the disparities of care between rich and poor. Policy makers and citizens interested in making informed judgments on health care should take the time to read Dr. Black's book.

This is a MUST READ for anyone who needs to learn more about brain tumors or just anyone who is a lay "medical geek" like me. Dr. Black displays his in-depth expertise, compassion, and team spirit through story-telling about his actual patients and their brain surgeries. Not only did I learn about staging (and location of tumors), I learned technical terms, I learned about doctors with a true concern for their patients, and I learned more about how cell phone usage could possibly be causing brain tumors. The one thing I wish would have been discussed more is a more detailed description on the history and physiology of the "blood-brain barrier." I rate this as the number one non-fiction book I have read this year, and I read a lot.

I read this book as a person who's needing to select a brain surgeon for a rare type of meningioma. Not only was Dr Black's personal story about how he came to be a neuro-surgeon fascinating, but it was the best source of education I've seen for a patient. I've gained enough of an understanding about how brain surgery is done, to now ask specific questions of potential surgeons that are critical to my recovery. Dr Black's personal philosophy about how magnificent the brain is directly correlates with his surgical techniques to do everything possible to not touch any healthy brain tissue. He states his job is "to be a thief in the night, by getting in there to steal the tumor before the brain knows he's even been there". His compassion and humility are profoundly represented in the stories he shares about his patients. He repeatedly states that "his patients are the real heros not the neurosurgeons". It restores my hope to learn of a doctor who continually asks himself, "is this in the best interest of the patient". I was also interested in how he explained that the reward system for traditional medical research doesn't always lend itself to a direct usefulness for clinical practice. The research practice he's set-up is looking for direct "bench to bedside" impact, and that is how we'll see advancement to cure brain cancer. I was shocked to realize that out of the 5000 licensed neuro-surgeons in the US, 4900 of them are dedicated to spinal surgery and of the remaining 100, 50 of those are vascular surgeons. That leaves about 50 docs who are completely focused on brain tumors. Statistics don't lie about the best surgical outcomes for ANY type of surgery is related to how often a surgeon does a specific surgery. Bottom line is, every brain tumor patient and the people that love them, should read this book! Trust me, Dr Black has set my expectations high for a Neuro-surgeon and he's at the top of my list of docs to interview. Gina Graf

Being a patient of his probably makes me an unfair favorable bias towards this great doctor. I read the book in one sitting. I could'nt put it down! It reads like a great movie. Not hard for non medical types like myself. A very interesting life story and everyday life of a top neurosurgeon is revealed here. I highly reccommend it! You wont be dissapionted

BRAIN SURGEON A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles Keith Black, MD with Arnold Mann Wellness Central Hachette Book Group ISBN: 978-0-446-58109-7 $24.99 Reviewer: Annie Slessman Not being in the medical field, I expected BRAIN SURGEON, A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles by Keith Black, MD with Arnold Mann to be a hard, dry read. I could not have been more wrong! Dr. Black and Arnold Mann have managed to take a subject matter - brain surgery - from the mysterious to something easily understood by everyone. Dr. Black uses a series of stories about his patients and their courage and surprising stamina to relate his experiences and inform the reader about the mysteries of the brain. Each story explains the many types of brain cancer and the degree of difficulty that each occurrence requires in its treatment. For instance, my own daughter was recently diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. We were told the tumor was not cancerous. She had only taken a MRI - how can they tell the tumor is not cancerous by an image test? Well, I got my answer when Dr. Black explained that a tumor which is cancerous absorbs more of the dye making it more prominent in the MRI. Thank you, Dr. Black, I found your book and its ability to explain things in simple terms very comforting. Dr. Black, early in his career leans toward cardiology. When he took his first neuro-anatomy class, he was hooked. As he states, "the bottom line is that the heart is just a muscle, a pump, to be sure, it's a very elegant muscle and a great pump, but it's still a pump. The brain, on the other hand, is the ultimate reduction of self." When explaining a specific treatment he likens his vaccine to that of a warrior fighting a terrorist (cancer). This vaccine seeks out the bad cancer cells and "presents" them to the body's killer T-cells. Killer T-cells are a special variety of white blood cells, or lymphocytes. When the vaccine presents these bad cells to the Killer T-cells they know to attack. Don't you absolutely love this analogy? Most everyone can understand this process with the use of this analogy. Quite often, I donate my review books to the local library. It is my way of giving the gift of knowledge. However, I just cannot bring myself to donate this book. It will remain in my own library.