Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years Review
I just finished reading Hot lights, cold steel. It was one of the easiest reading and most entertaining books I've read. I truly admire your sense of humor throughout the tough times. I felt Dr Collin's lack of sleep, the love for his wife and kids, and the grueling Minnesota winters he experienced during his training years.
I honestly couldn't put the book down. I always wanted to find out how things ended up. Hot lights, cold steel definitely has become an inspiration for me to prepare for the exhausting, but truly worthy residency experience, which I might start in a year or two. It also lit a spark on my writing skills and made me want to share my experiences in the future.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in surgical specialties. I also recommend it to resident's families, friends, loved ones, since it pictures the day to day life of a surgeon in training.
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years Overview
When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate and unprepared. All too soon, the euphoria of beginning his career as an orthopedic resident gives way to the feeling he is a counterfeit, an imposter who has infiltrated a society of brilliant surgeons.
This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income.
Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections.
Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.
This story of Collins' four-year surgical residency traces his rise from an eager but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident in his final year. With unparalleled humor, he recounts the disparity between people's perceptions of a doctor's glamorous life and the real thing: a succession of run down cars that are towed to the junk yard, long weekends moonlighting at rural hospitals, a family that grows larger every year, and a laughable income.
Collins' good nature helps him over some of the rough spots but cannot spare him the harsh reality of a doctor's life. Every day he is confronted with decisions that will change people's lives-or end them-forever. A young boy's leg is mangled by a tractor: risk the boy's life to save his leg, or amputate immediately? A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip: go through a painful hip operation even though she has only months to live? Like a jolt to the system, he is faced with the reality of suffering and death as he struggles to reconcile his idealism and aspiration to heal with the recognition of his own limitations and imperfections.
Unflinching and deeply engaging, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a humane and passionate reminder that doctors are people too. This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.
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Customer Reviews
Highly recommended! - AvidReader -
Dr. Collins has written a touching, honest, and sometimes hilarious memoir of his Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgery residency. He also offers insight into the difficulties and joys of marriage and family life during the almost impossibly demanding years of medical school and surgical training.
Michelle Kram - Michelle Kram - chicago, il
One of the best reads.....you wont' want to put it down. Found myselfing laughing out loud!
Great book - ALT - Anchorage AK
As a young person aspiring to be a physician this was an awesome book. I ercommend to anyone who wants to get a better understandning of what it takes to become a physician. It was a great behind the scenes memoir of what docto's go through. It was also humorious and kept my attention.
Great Doctor, Great Author - Grandma Moses - Chicago, IL United States
Love the author and the unassuming manner in which he approaches the subject of becoming a doctor. Only complaint, he should have written his latest book "Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs", which came out in 2009, first. Both books are quick reads that make me more respectful of physicians and the long road they have to travel before they can start to have a life!!!
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 28, 2010 22:24:45
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