Do No Harm
Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery
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Do No Harm
Narrated by:
Jim Barclay
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Jim Barclay
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By:
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Henry Marsh
About this listen
What is it really like to be a brain surgeon, to hold someone's life in your hands, to drill down into the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?
In this brutally honest account, one of the country's top neurosurgeons reveals what it is to play god in life-and-death situations. Henry Marsh gives us a rare insight into the intense drama of the operating theatre and the exquisite complexity of the human brain.
©2014 Henry Marsh (P)2014 W F Howes LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Editor reviews
The incredible life of a brain surgeon in the NHS and the heart-breaking stories of his patients are described in the honest and revealing unabridged audiobook Do No Harm, written by brain surgeon Henry Marsh and narrated by Jim Barclay. Take a fascinating look into the neurosurgical operating room and gain a deep sense of the weight of responsibility the performing surgeon must bear forever. Told with the deepest compassion and loyalty to the lives of others, Marsh writes with eloquence about the profound significance of an organ that makes us who we are as individuals. Available now from Audible.
Brain surgery is amazing. You are operating at a microscopic scale in a minefield primed with arteries carrying high pressure blood, on a soft fatty substance that contains the thoughts and memories of a fellow human being. Henry Marsh takes you down the operating microscope and shares his excitement and fear with the reader. Experienced as an audiobook, the narrative crackles in the middle of your own brain; I mostly took it all in at one listen (rare for me).
I suspect that writing this book was a cathartic experience for Marsh, and I sincerely hope it succeeded for him. As a brain surgeon, for thirty years, he has had to deal with the emotional burden of his day to day work having an impact on his patients that ranges from lifesaving, to death and worse. Marsh unflinchingly examines this question, without hubris, without delusions, with a searching honesty that is probably the quality I value most in a human being. He didn’t have to write this book (his job is being a surgeon), he is not a great writer (over keen on circumlocutions such as, ‘the contrast could not be greater with…’ and adding atmosphere via the weather), and I feel grateful that he has shared his very personal experiences.
The book gives fascinating insights into the relationship between surgeon and patient, these asymmetric strangers, from the doctor’s point of view.
Marsh sails by the political issues of the NHS; he simply is not interested. He hardly mentions rising costs or waiting lists, presumably because economics and management are simply not his bailiwick. He snipes at the farcical outcomes of targets and rules, he mildly regrets the loss of status and authority of consultant surgeons, he occasionally notes the outrageous costs involved - £4000 worth of one-time use kit littering the operating theatre floor. With winning insouciance he mentions how glad he is to enjoy private health care whenever he is ill, and feels no need to provide further explanation or apology, beyond his simple desire for dignity and his own, en-suite, hospital room.
By the way, once you have finished this book, you can see brain surgery videos on Youtube. Having read the book, they don’t seem as gory as they would without the book to guide you through.
Narration
I don’t think it is right for non-fiction narrators use accents to add colour to quotations (as I’ve said before). In this book, the patients speak with humble, cap-doffing, uneducated voices, while Henry himself speaks with an authoritative, received pronunciation, 'confident consultant' voice. I find it deeply patronising.
Stopping points are nicely coordinated with the book chapters.
An examined life, profoundly honest, freely shared
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Fascinating!
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Did me no harm!
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Good listen.
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very entertaining and interesting
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