A book review of Behind the Mask: The Mystique of Surgery And the Surgeons who Perform Them by David Gelber MD
Stars: ****
Ruffian Press (2011)
General Surgery
190 pages
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Summary: A look at the world of surgery through the eyes of Dr.David Gelber, a surgeon with more than twenty years experience. Dr. Gelber gives the reader a glimpse into the mind and thought processes of surgeons; how they evaluate their patients, what happens during and after surgery, along with pitfalls and complications that can develop. Numerous anecdotes and actual cases carry the reader on a journey through the often unpredictable life of a busy surgeon.
Behind the Mask
I picked this book up myself because I was addicted to Grey’s Anatomy and I wanted to learn more about real surgery. This seemed like an interesting book to start with.
The book met my expectations. I learned about surgery with some humour thrown in. The author was pretty funny.
“From the tops of our heads to the soles of our feet our bodies are constructed to withstand extremes of temperature, assaults by invading organism, physical and mental challenges, and to perform with uncanny accuracy under the most arduous and taxing conditions.”
Behind the Mask by David Gelber MD pg 31
The author/doctor discusses the parts of surgery we don’t get to see. What happens in the surgery theater (operating room.) Well we see it on tv shows but we get the real deal in this book. We learn about our bodies and how they work.
We learn about The ABCs of Trauma (which I learned in First Aid Class so you may have too.) What the Anesthesiologist does. How a surgery progresses from scrubbing and patient prep to wheeling the patient to recovery. How we learned to stop the spread of infection and how to treat it. Finally his “Rules” were very interesting.
Here are two of them:
1. Never cut anything if you don’t know what it is.
2. If a blood vessel has a name, it deserves to be tied twice.
Behind the Mask by David Gelber MD. pg 29
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