"Seymour Schwartz, known to every medical student as a result of his brilliant book Principles of Surgery, has now turned the focus inward in his book Gifted Hands. He examines the very genesis of our field and takes readers on a historical yet dramatic ride through the life and death decisions that set the tone for what has become modern day surgery. The hubris of the early surgeons can be stunning, yet Schwartz shows us how early surgeons hit that perfect intersection between audacity and achievability and how we all benefited because of it. Surgery has had a rough and sometimes gritty past, but it was always hopeful, and that message rings through loud and clear in Gifted Hands. There is no question that this is a book about heroes. They are compassionate intellectuals who forever changed the course of our medical history. Make no mistake; Seymour Schwartz is one of them."
Dr SANJAY GUPTA, Faculty Neurosurgeon, Emory Clinic
Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN
Author of the New York Times bestseller Chasing Life
The United States enjoys an established and essentially unchallenged role in the field of surgery. In this sweeping history of American surgical practice, renowned surgeon Seymour I. Schwartz, MD, describes how surgery in this country advanced from the comparatively crude practices of pioneering physicians in the pre-Columbian and colonial eras to its current level of preeminence in scientific surgery today.
Of interest to the layperson and professional alike, Dr. Schwartz’s engrossing narrative brings to life the personalities and sometimes dramatic conflicts that led to breakthrough contributions. In the nineteenth century, for example, the many colorful characters and surgical innovations included: a surgeon in a small Kentucky community who successfully removed a huge tumor from a woman’s abdomen without anesthesia; the three individuals who each laid claim to the development of ether anesthesia; and the first successful gallbladder operation.
Turning to the twentieth century, Dr. Schwartz highlights the evolution of vascular surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and organ transplantation. Many great innovators made crucial contributions, including the Nobel Prize winners Alexis Carrel, who developed a method to sew vessels together, and Joseph Murray, who worked on kidney transplantation in Boston.
Complete with an array of intriguing illustrations, this definitive work will captivate general readers with its engaging narrative and will inform medical professionals through its solid historical research and medical expertise.
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 259
ISBN: 978-1-59102-683-9
Shipping Weight: 2lbs
Author Bio:
Seymour I Schwartz, MD (Pittsford, NY), a world-renowned surgeon, is the author of Gifted Hands: America’s Most Significant Contributions to Surgery. He is equally renowned as a cartographic historian. He served on the board of directors of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, and on the board of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, and is the author of The Mismapping of America, The Mapping of America (with Ralph E. Ehrenberg), and This Land Is Your Land, among other books.
