Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery

I enjoyed this, but I think the summary does this book a disservice. It's not really about hope, it's more one man's struggle to provide adequate healthcare in a system designed to fight you the entire way. Unless you find bureaucracy hopeful, I guess.

There's not really much to summarize here. Henry Marsh was a neurosurgeon within the NHS, and while I'm not familiar with the name, I gather he was a pretty good one too. This book is him looking back on his career, highlighting some of the more notable cases along the way, while also providing insight and philosophizing about the many rules and regulations set up ostensibly to improve care, but really were just to cut costs and make things more difficult. He does quite a bit of ruminating on the cases that didn't go so well, and it's refreshing to see someone confront and admit their mistakes, especially when they're as impactful as these were. Nobody's perfect.

I guess the only thing that bothered me a little about this book is that it hops around so much, even within chapters. It isn't told sequentially/chronologically, but rather case-by-case, and even within the case he sometimes goes back and forth in time discussing various related points/stories. I didn't mind so much because I enjoyed what he had to say on whatever he was talking about, but someone else who better appreciates a linear story might have problems.

All in all, a very readable, enjoyable book.