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Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted |  | Author: Gerald Imber
Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $13.25
as of 7/29/2010 00:45 CDT details
You Save: $12.70 (49%)
Seller: esquire120
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 8631
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 412
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 1607146274
Dewey Decimal Number: 617.092
EAN: 9781607146278
ASIN: 1607146274
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781607146278 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A major new biography of the doctor who invented modern surgery. Brilliant, driven, but haunted by demons, William Stewart Halsted took surgery from a horrific, dangerous practice to what we now know as a lifesaving art. Halsted was born to wealth and privilege in New York City in the mid-1800s. He attended the finest schools, but he was a mediocre student. His academic interests blossomed at medical school and he quickly became a celebrated surgeon. Experimenting with cocaine as a local anesthetic, he became addicted. He was hospitalized and treated with morphine to control his craving for cocaine. For the remaining 40 years of his life he was addicted to both drugs. Halsted resurrected his career at Johns Hopkins, where he became the first chief of surgery. Among his accomplishments, he introduced the residency training system, the use of sterile gloves, the first successful hernia repair, radical mastectomy, fine silk sutures, and anatomically correct surgical technique. Halsted is without doubt the father of modern surgery, and his eccentric behavior, unusual lifestyle, and counterintuitive productivity in the face of lifelong addiction make his story unusually compelling. Gerald Imber, a renowned surgeon himself, evokes Halsted’s extraordinary life and achievements and places them squarely in the historical and social context of the late 19th century. The result is an illuminating biography of a complex and troubled man, whose genius we continue to benefit from today.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A MUST FOR ALL MEDICAL STUDENTS July 11, 2010
Julian Guitron (Cincinnati, OH, USA)
... and if I was the Program Director, I would mail this book to all my incoming residents and make it a mandatory read before they start as surgical interns.
This is one of my top 3 books and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a great perspective on the medical happenings around the turn of the 19th century. It's fascinating to realize how the changes that took place and led to modern surgery hinged on a single person, Dr. Halsted (incorporating work of many over decades, of course).
Some reviewers complained about the style, including some medical lingo, however other than 2 or 3 expressions that went unexplained, everything makes good sense even for the non-healthcare related reader. It's really hard to put this book down.
If you want to get a feel for what it was like to live in the late 1800s, what the health care was before and after Johns Hopkins as well as the intricate minds of those visionary men that revolutionized the medical/surgical practice and education, this is the book to read, hands down.
On a personal note, I greatly enjoyed reading on a few golden nuggets on Dr. George Heuer and Dr. Mont Reid, especially because they went on the become the founding Chairmen of the Department of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati, where I proudly practice.
GENIUSES are good for Society. June 27, 2010
M. Franta (Walnut, CA United States)
Like most people, I never gave any thought whatsoever to how our modern surgeries evolved, and took for granted that Westernized modern surgeries require a sterile field, sterile rooms and sterile gloves. This book, "Genius on the Edge; the Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted", grabbed me by my collar at the bookstore, and after reading the first two pages, "the Prologue," I was hooked. I bought this book, not hearing anything about it, or even the legendary genius, Dr. Halsted. I read the whole thing in two days.
"Surgery would be delightful if you did not have to operate," was the opening statement of this fine book, given many years ago - by the brilliant Dr. Halsted. Back in the day, when surgery was just being figured out, most `surgeons' were mere "butchers" by today's standards, or "meat carvers" - whose surgical prowess and technique was judged on how fast they could do the deed. Surgery was excruciatingly painful and left physical and emotional scars that never healed. Many surgeons of that era were very hard on the body parts they operated on; and a patient of that era was fortunate if their surgeon knew how to use a bar of soap & water prior to operating. A huge percentage of early patients did poorly post-op, so consequently, surgery was the last resort any person chose. Most persons died of the resulting infection than the original malady, and Dr. Halsted was painfully aware of this and set out to correct it.
The true story of this book was really never fully explored. A lot was said in regards to Dr. Halsted's self-experimentation with Cocaine, and how he carefully calibrated small doses as he experimented with Coke for dental procedures. Dr Halsted was extremely careful; he invited and involved multiple medical students who were made to take small doses of Cocaine; all in the name of Medical Research, but a not legal or ethical practice. They reported feeling no pain when taking Cocaine, and also reported having felt an enjoyable sense of exhilaration after taking the Coke. Cocaine dosaging was either inhaled or injected, and was used in social circumstances as well. Gradually, the good doctor and his students became addicted. One by one, the students began to behave erratically and eventually dropped out of medical school and dropped out of sight. Dr. Halsted hung in because he was a professor and chief surgeon, but he himself became lost in the netherworld of Coke addiction - and temporarily lost the ability to write papers coherently. He required long vacations for the rest of his illustrious career. He would manage to focus intensely on his work 6 months out of a year, but then he would drop out for 6 months at a time, where he could indulge his secret chemical habit. He tried hard to quit Cocaine and mistakenly took Morphine to "cure" himself - thus only winding up becoming dually addicted to both substances. This dual addiction would destroy most strong men, but it did not destroy Dr. Halsted...somehow, he was able to compartmentalize his addictions versus his life-works / but how he did this remains unknown. This book glosses over how Dr. Halsted was able to maintain such a rigorous and relentless work schedule while remaining hooked. This juicy tidbit remains a mystery is how the good doctor managed to maintain his coke addiction and simultaneously build and develop massive innovations in surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I still don't know how Dr. Halsted managed this...one can only wonder and think.
Halsted was strongly influenced by other medical giants in his medical world: Luis Pasteur, Robert Koch and Joseph Lister. As Halsted became a surgeon at New York Hospital, and ultimately Johns Hopkins - where he spent as much time as he possibly could observing surgeries in that hallowed house of pain. In 1881 he performed the first emergency blood transfusion by withdrawing a large amount of blood from his own arm and injecting it into his sister's arm, in order to save her life immediately post-partum. Thus the ABO blood groups were later identified by Karl Landsteiner but not until 1900.
What I love about this book is that a lot of discussions are included regarding many medical discoveries, and the reader gets the back story on how certain innovations came about.
This book was written strong enough to reach across the aisle and compell me to reach back to read it. I found it to be fascinating and intriguing. I am a registered nurse, so perhaps this is why I devoured this book and relished every bite. I encourage all scientifically minded persons to buy this book and read it and save it forever so you can re-read it and refer to it's historic significance.
Dr. Gerald Imber is the author who created this book and I wish to thank the good doctor for doing all his exhaustive research on the matter of Dr. William Stewart Halsted and his peers. This is an excellent book, receiving 5 out of 5 stars. * * * * *
 Strangely fascinating May 24, 2010
ryan morrison
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
By far the best biography I have read. I did not have to skip over any boring parts or risk falling asleep. It was strange to realize that not only did people not always use sterile practices but that within the last 100 years people did not use sterile practices. Dr Halsted snd his peers were the creators of modern medicine as we still know it, and their story is a fascinating one.
important book,serious error in prologue April 29, 2010
goosey (n y state)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book.As a surgeon with a special interest in Halsted I thought another
biography of HALSTED was past due.The prologue describes the emergency surgery by
HALSTED on his mother in april of 1882 where he removed her gallstones [cholecystostomy].The author states that Halsted had successfully performed the
first known operation to remove gallstones.. Dr. John Bobbs of Indiana
did this in 1867 with success and reported it.He is generally given credit for this
by historians. nine yrs later he performed another successful cholecystostomy. Johann
Thudicum described this procedure to the MEdical Society of London on Oct 17, 1859.
J.L. Petit performed a successful cholecystostomy in 1743.J Marion Sims,the N.Y.
surgeon did this same emergency operation on an American woman in Paris in 1878 and
reported it in the British Med. J. that same year.
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