When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery

The only minor operation is one that someone else is doing. If you’re doing it, it’s major.

suffering is pain augmented by a bleak imagination.

Irreversibility of our missteps is one reason why I also awaken each morning wondering how I can get out of neurosurgery. The fly struggles in the web.

Look at the patient.

“Welcome to the real world, where people only want answers—correct, accurate answers. If a bridge collapses and kills forty people, who do you think cares whether the engineers set up the problem correctly? In life, there is no partial credit for being half right. If you want to accomplish anything important, you have to be totally right—and be wil