When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales of Neurosurgery


Frank T. Vertosick Jr. - 1996
    In other words, by all of us."--Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and MiraclesRule One for the neurologist in residence: "You ain't never the same when the air hits your brain." In this fascinating book, Dr. Frank Vertosick brings that fact to life through intimate portraits of patients and unsparing yet gripping descriptions of brain surgery.With insight, humor, and poignancy, Dr. Vertosick chronicles his remarkable evolution from naive young intern to world-class neurosurgeon, where he faced, among other challenges, 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. In candid detail, WHEN THE AIR HITS YOUR BRAIN illuminates both the mysteries of the mind and the realities of the operating room."Riveting."--Publishers Weekly

A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology


Randy-Michael TestaWalt Whitman - 2002
    Organized around the central themes of altruism, knowledge, skill, and duty, the book includes contributions from well-known authors, doctors, nurses, practitioners, and patients. Provocative and moving pieces address what it means to care for a life in a century of unprecedented scientific advances, examining issues of hope and healing from both ends of the stethoscope.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor


Tony Bleetman - 2019
    And, should you ever get to hold one, you will find the human heart to be rubbery and shockingly light.'What Could Possibly Go Wrong? is a report from the front line of emergency medicine, the first ever account of what it is like to work as an air ambulance doctor. Whether describing cutting through a patient's breastbone to plug a stab wound or barrel rolling a light aircraft at 5,000 feet, Tony Bleetman captures the sheer adrenaline of racing through the sky to save lives. You will learn how to land a helicopter on the side of a mountain, what it means to encounter death every day, and how to perform a tracheotomy in real life (clue: it doesn’t involve a ball-point pen).Funny, shocking and moving, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? is a glimpse at a world where the wrong decision can mean the difference between life and death.Originally published as You Can't Park There: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor.

Hallucinations


Oliver Sacks - 2012
    Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people. People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world. Hallucinations can be brought on by a simple fever or even the act of waking or falling asleep, when people have visions ranging from luminous blobs of color to beautifully detailed faces or terrifying ogres. Those who are bereaved may receive comforting “visits” from the departed. In some conditions, hallucinations can lead to religious epiphanies or even the feeling of leaving one’s own body. Humans have always sought such life-changing visions, and for thousands of years have used hallucinogenic compounds to achieve them. As a young doctor in California in the 1960s, Oliver Sacks had both a personal and a professional interest in psychedelics. These, along with his early migraine experiences, launched a lifelong investigation into the varieties of hallucinatory experience. Here, with his usual elegance, curiosity, and compassion, Dr. Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture’s folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all, a vital part of the human condition.

Pharmacology for Nursing Care


Richard A. Lehne - 1990
    It provides the background needed to understand related drugs currently on the market, as well as drugs yet to be released. In simplifying a complex subject, this text focuses on the essentials of pharmacology. Large print is used to show need-to-know information, and small print is used for nice to know material. At the end of each chapter, a summary of major nursing implications helps in applying the material to real-world situations. This edition includes a new companion CD-ROM featuring NCLEX(R) examination-style review questions, a variety of electronic calculators, and animations depicting drug mechanisms and effects.Uses a prototype drug approach that places a strong emphasis on understanding over memorization - equipping students with the knowledge to learn not only about related drugs currently on the market, but also about those drugs that will be released once the student begins practice.Summaries of Major Nursing Implications at the end of each chapter provide an in-depth look at assessment, implementation, and ongoing evaluations.Utilizes large print for essential information and small print for nice-to-know information to help both faculty and students focus their limited classroom and study time on understanding the essentials.Concise drug summary tables present detailed information on individual drugs, including class, generic and trade names, dosages, routes, and indications.Key Points at the end of each chapter summarize content in a bulleted format to help students review important concepts.Prototype drug discussions employ a clear and consistent format with separate headings for Mechanism of Action; Pharmacologic Effects; Pharmacokinetics; Therapeutic Uses; Adverse Effects; Drug Interactions; and Preparations, Dosage, and Administration.An attractive full-color design adds visual interest, highlights key information, and facilitates student learning.Drugs for Multiple Sclerosis and Drugs for Hemophilia chapters.Drugs for Erectile Dysfunction and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia chapter covers newsworthy drugs such as Viagra and Levitra.Special Interest Topics boxes on current issues in pharmacology, such as Medication-Overuse Headache: Too Much of a Good Thing and Face Time with Botox.Adult Immunization appendix summarizes the latest information on immunizations.Numerous new illustrations show drug mechanisms and effects, and depict topics such as histologic changes in Alzheimer's disease and the movement of drugs following GI absorption.

Grant's Atlas of Anatomy


Anne M.R. Agur - 2004
    Now in its Eleventh Edition, this classic atlas continues to provide students with accurate anatomical images presented in a pedagogically effective, clinically relevant manner. This new edition has been revised to include 100 additional four-color illustrations, additional orientation drawings, and updated terminology.This edition is packaged with a student version of Dynamic Human Anatomy, an interactive electronic supplement which includes 800 images from the Eleventh Edition of Grant's, 8 video clips from Acland's DVD Atlas of Human Anatomy, and 100 USMLE-style review questions in anatomy.

The Brain: The Story of You


David Eagleman - 2015
    Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human?  In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, and the search for immortality.  Strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells and their trillions of connections, something emerges that you might not have expected to see in there: you.

Journey


Robert K. Massie - 1975
    Journey is Robert and Suzanne Massie's memoir of raising their hemophiliac son in the 1950's, and the significant differences they found between the American and French healthcare systems.

Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain


Mark F. Bear - 1995
    This edition provides increased coverage of taste and smell, circadian rhythms, brain development, and developmental disorders and includes new information on molecular mechanisms and functional brain imaging. Path of Discovery boxes, written by leading researchers, highlight major current discoveries. In addition, readers will be able to assess their knowledge of neuroanatomy with the Illustrated Guide to Human Neuroanatomy, which includes a perforated self-testing workbook.This edition's robust ancillary package includes a bound-in student CD-ROM, an Instructor's Resource CD-ROM, and resources online.

The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity


Norman Doidge - 2015
    His revolutionary new book shows, for the first time, how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. It describes natural, non-invasive avenues into the brain provided by the forms of energy around us—light, sound, vibration, movement—which pass through our senses and our bodies to awaken the brain’s own healing capacities without producing unpleasant side effects. Doidge explores cases where patients alleviated years of chronic pain or recovered from debilitating strokes or accidents; children on the autistic spectrum or with learning disorders normalizing; symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and cerebral palsy radically improved, and other near-miracle recoveries. And we learn how to vastly reduce the risk of dementia with simple approaches anyone can use. For centuries it was believed that the brain’s complexity prevented recovery from damage or disease. The Brain’s Way of Healing shows that this very sophistication is the source of a unique kind of healing. As he did so lucidly in The Brain That Changes Itself, Doidge uses stories to present cutting-edge science with practical real-world applications, and principles that everyone can apply to improve their brain’s performance and health.

The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep


Guy Leschziner - 2019
    Guy Leschziner's patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, sleep apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep--and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock's days and nights.Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while "sleep-eating." The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome" stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hyper-sexuality while awake.With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.

Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To


Dean Burnett - 2016
    But it’s also messy, fallible, and about 50,000 years out of date. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us, and lie awake at night while our brains endlessly replay our greatest fears. Idiot Brain is for anyone who has ever wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life—and what on earth it is really up to.A Library Journal Science Bestseller and a Finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award in Science Technology.

Not All of Us Are Saints: A Doctor's Journey with the Poor


David Hilfiker - 1994
    David Hilfiker's award-winning first book, Healing the Wounds, broke the silence surrounding the everyday practice of medicine and established him as a unique figure within the medical profession, "strikingly honest, courageous, and clear-sighted" (Oliver Sacks). In 1983, Dr. Hilfiker took on the greatest challenge of his career: he left his practice in rural Minnesota, moved with his wife and three young children to an inner-city neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and entered the world of poverty medicine. Not All of Us Are Saints vividly depicts what it means for a physician to confront the health problems of ravaged ghetto communities, for a middle-class white man to face the stark contrasts between poverty and privilege, and for a human being to admit his own spiritual limitations. Through dramatic accounts of his own cases, Dr. Hilfiker shows us a medical universe in which doctors are almost as powerless as their patients, where even the most commonplace medical solutions - bed rest, daily dosages, diet - are of little use to people without homes or family or food. This unflinching, deeply moving story is about the painful limits of care and caregivers, but it is also about the limitless rewards of faith and compassion - a moving testament to what is possible here and now.

Life Support: Diary of an ICU Doctor on the Frontline of the Covid Crisis


Jim Down - 2021
    

Intensive Care: A Doctor's Journey


Danielle Ofri - 2013
    Her vivid prose brings the reader into bustling hospitals, tense exam rooms, and Ofri's own life, giving an up-close look at the fast-paced, life-and-death drama of becoming a doctor. She tells of a young man uncertain of his future who comes into the clinic with a stomach complaint but for whom Dr. Ofri sees that the most useful "treatment" she can offer him is SAT tutoring. She writes of a desperate struggle to communicate with a critically ill patient who only speaks Mandarin, of a doctor whose experience in the NICU leaves her paralyzed with PTSD, and of her own struggles with the fear of making fatal errors, the dangers of overconfidence, and the impossible attempts to balance the empathy necessary for good care with the distance necessary for self-preservation. Through these stories of her patients, colleagues, and her own experiences, Intensive Care offers poignant insight into the medical world, and into the hearts and minds of doctors and their patients. These stories are drawn from the author’s previous books and one is from her forthcoming book, What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine.excerpted from Amazon.com Book Description