Life on a Knife’s Edge
A Brain Surgeon’s Reflections on Life, Loss and Survival
-
-
5.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $19.99
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
'It's a brilliant book... There are lessons in every paragraph... Get it now.' Chris Evans
'Wonderous and wild. I loved this book' James Nestor, bestselling author of Breath
'Moving, raw and unflinching' Julia Samuel, bestselling author of This Too Shall Pass
'Incredible storytelling' Dr Rangan Chatterjee, bestselling author of Feel Better in 5
____________________________________________________________________________
How do you carry on when things go deadly wrong?
When Dr Rahul Jandial operated on Karina, an eleven-year-old girl whose spinal cord was splitting in two, he had to make an impossible decision. He followed his head over his gut and Karina was left permanently paralysed, altering both patient and surgeon's lives for ever. This decision would haunt Rahul for decades, a constant reminder of the fine line between saving and damaging a life.
As one of the world's leading brain surgeons, Rahul is the last hope for patients with extreme forms of cancer. In treating them, he has observed humanity at its most raw and most robust. He has journeyed to unimaginable extremes with them, guiding them through the darkest moments of their lives.
Life on a Knife's Edge is Rahul's poetic and beautifully written account of the resilience, courage and belief he has witnessed in his patients, and the lessons about human nature he has learned from them. It is about the impossible choices he has to make, and the fateful consequences he is forced to live with.
From challenging the ethics of surgical practices, to helping a patient with locked-in syndrome communicate her dying wish to her family, Rahul shares his extraordinary experiences, revealing the depths of a surgeon's psyche that is continuously pushed to its limits.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Neurosurgeon Jandial (Life Lessons) offers a high-flying account of operating-room feats. He describes dislodging cancerous tumors deep within the brain, staunching burst aneurysms, and performing a hemicorporectomy (an operation where the lower half of the body is removed), as well as the strategies he used to stay focused, such as a light workout the night before and meditative breathing to help keep his cool. Jandial characterizes the satisfaction he gets from performing death-defying procedures as an addiction, and is forthcoming about his failures, including an "error of judgment" that left an 11-year-old girl paralyzed from the waist down. His prose is vivid (brain vessels are "slightly different in each of us... you work top down, as if you are parting a tree's canopy to reach the thick branches deep inside"), and he doesn't neglect considering the importance of emotionally connecting with his patients: "The possibility of surgery gave her hope, and hope was her strength.... Leaders in the field had said that her cancer was inoperable.... The challenge was my stimulant." Indeed, Jandial isn't humble about his talent or his quest for surgical adventure. The result is a fast ride, jolting at times, with fleeting insights into the mind of a surgeon.
