Cutting Remarks: Insights and Recollections of a Surgeon

(Paperback)

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Description

"A surgeon can kill you...and you'll sleep right through it." The most dramatic-and seemingly glamorous-of medical fields, surgery captivates the public's imagination. Written for inquisitive laymen as well as anyone in the medical profession, this fascinating first-person account documents the career of one of America's top surgeons. Readers accompany Sidney Schwab through medical school at Case Western Reserve University; an internship; junior and senior residencies (with a detour to Vietnam, where he won a Purple Heart); and finally his chief residency years in San Francisco. With humor and poignancy-and sometimes graphic detail-Schwab recalls memorable surgeries, surgeons, and patients. He takes care to explain, in understandable and interesting fashion, a variety of diseases, medical issues, and surgical techniques. More than just a memoir, Cutting Remarks offers a compelling look at how trauma and surgery are handled at a major hospital, and provides valuable insight into a surgeon's relationship with both peers and patients.

Reviews

"Anyone facing a surgical procedure should read this book and hope their surgeon has had the quality of training that is described so wonderfully in Cutting Remarks. Sid Schwab brings a whole hospital of professionals and patients to life in describing the range of emotions he experienced on a daily basis: excitement, awe, insecurity, pessimism, fear, satisfaction, self-doubt, elation, pride, amazement, honor...and you the reader will feel all this with him."
- Jerry Goldstone, MD, Professor of Surgey and Chief of Vascular Surgery at Case School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and former president of the American Association of Vascular Surgery

"Sid Schwab brings to life a training time that irrevocably changed me and so many others. Cutting Remarks dissects the making of a surgeon and the patients who formed his soul."
- Armando E. Giuliano, MD, Chief of Surgical Oncology, John Wayne Cancer Institute

"What an inspiring and insightful book! Sid Schwab highlights the human element of patient/surgeon relationships and how intertwined they become. His humor comes through, too, making this a most entertaining book."
- Helen Pumphrey, RN, CNOR, recipient in 2004 of the AORN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Nursing Management

"When telling the story of a general surgical resident, you really don't need to invent drama -- it's there for the taking. It's Dr. Schwab's brutal honesty with himself and his audience that makes this account so fresh and enjoyable. I want my entire staff to read this book."
- Kevin Horty, Managing Editor of General Surgery News

"Schwab's book leaves no one immune to his blunt assessments of the medical world and how he feels it should be."
-Mukilteo Beacon, April 12, 2006

"The book reveals heart and humanity, as well as medical skill....Keep writing, Dr. Schwab."
-The Herald, April 5, 2006

"Buy it...I just couldn't put it down."
-A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure BLOG, April 16, 2006

"I also liked the fact that when I was finished, I wished there was more to read...great book!"
- L. Simoneaux, journalist + fan

Author Bio

Sidney M. Schwab, MD, Board Certified in Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, did his surgery training at the University of California at San Francisco and practiced surgery in Oregon and Washington State, where he served on the board of directors of one of the most successful fully physician-run multispecialty clinics in the US. Schwab has been listed in the national guide of top doctors. Today he lives in Everett, Washington, with Judy Mumma Schwab, his wife of thirty-four years. Read his blog at surgeonsblog.blogspot.com.