When the Air Hits Your Brain - Tales from Neurosurgery

"Dramatic, moving, and utterly fascinating."--"New York Times Book Review" With poignant insight and humor, When the Air Hits Your Brain chronicles one man's evolution from nave and ambitious young intern to world-class neurosurgeon. In electrifying detail, Frank Vertosick Jr. describes some of the greatest challenges of his career, including a six-week-old infant with a tumor in her brain, a young man struck down in his prime by paraplegia, and a minister with a .22-caliber bullet lodged in his skull. Told through intimate portraits of Vertosick's patients and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed descriptions of surgical procedures, "When the Air Hits Your Brain"--the culmination of decades spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft--illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room.