Books about Scalpel from Amazon.com

A Harvard-educated neurosurgeon reveals his experiences-in and out of the operating room-with apparitions, angels, exorcism, and after-death survival, and shares the lessons he learned

A young burn victim remains in a coma until a ghost appears.
A doctor discovers he can predict when a patient will die.
A clinically dead patient later recounts extraordinary details about the private lives of her caregivers.
A physician needs the help of a Navajo shaman to exorcise the spirit of his dead patient.

These things really happened-and neurosurgeon Allan J. Hamilton was involved in every one of them, and many more. Based on thirty years of medical experience, The Scalpel and the Soul tells the unspoken stories behind remarkable patients and strange events, and shares the moral and spiritual lessons found in them.

For physicians, supernatural inklings and intrusions are disturbing. Doctors cannot be candid with colleagues or patients because they are trained to disregard the inexplicable and unbelievable. They're taught to discount elusive, evanescent powers of the soul. Superstition, omens, and divine spirits smack of madness.

But patients have the same experiences. Life-threatening illness or surgery frequently brings dormant spirituality to life. The soul often needs more than intensive care alone can give. The Scalpel and the Soul explores how premonition, superstition, hope, and faith not only become factors in how patients feel but can change outcomes; it validates the spiritual manifestations physicians see every day; it empowers patients to voice their spiritual needs when they seek medical help; and, finally, it addresses the mysterious, attractive powers the soul exerts during life-threatening events..
Price: $0.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The first Navajo woman surgeon combines western medicine and traditional healing.

A spellbinding journey between two worlds, this remarkable book describes surgeon Lori Arviso Alvord's struggles to bring modern medicine to the Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico--and to bring the values of her people to a medical care system in danger of losing its heart.

Dr. Alvord left a dusty reservation in New Mexico for Stanford University Medical School, becoming the first Navajo woman surgeon. Rising above the odds presented by her own culture and the male-dominated world of surgeons, she returned to the reservation to find a new challenge. In dramatic encounters, Dr. Alvord witnessed the power of belief to influence health, for good or for ill. She came to merge the latest breakthroughs of medical science with the ancient tribal paths to recovery and wellness, following the Navajo philosophy of a balanced and harmonious life, called Walking in Beauty. And now, in bringing these principles to the world of medicine, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear joins those few rare works, such as Healing and the Mind, whose ideas have changed medical practices-and our understanding of the world.

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Price: $8.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“The first time I witnessed a Spiritist surgery, a young man named Jose Carlos Ribeiro inserted a used scalpel taken from a tray that I was holding, and plunged it into the eye of an elderly man. The patient did not move….” Decades of fieldwork later, Sidney Greenfield presents a riveting ethnography of the complex world of religious healing in Brazil that challenges readers to grapple with the most fundamental concepts of anthropology and cross-cultural experience. In a major contribution to cultural biology, he analyses the complex social, economic, and political landscape of Brazil to understand dramatic healing practices that seem to defy medical explanation. This engrossing and provocative book will put students and scholars alike on the edge of their seats..
Price: $24.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Compelling narrative of Norman Bethune, revolutionary doctor in Mao’s China.

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Price: $19.80 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This ethnography about the culture of surgeons describes how and why they differ significantly from other physicians Historically rising from humble roots as lower-class, uneducated, itinerant barbers, the profession has evolved into one of the most prestigious in America, one that utilizes the most sophisticated technologies in medicine. Surgeons have nonetheless retained many aspects of their historical culture, such as their proclivity for quick decisions, surgical "cures," and their detachment and aloofness from patients and other physicians. This book describes in detail what surgeons actually do in and out of the operating room. It reveals how they think about disease, patients, and other physicians; how their thinking is often non-scientific; how they make decisions; and how they keep secrets from patients and colleagues. This book gives a detailed description of a professional culture and how the culture, especially their active posture, influences decisions which affect patients and the health care system. The book discusses the methodology used to obtain and maintain trust with the surgeons and how the behavior was interpreted (1). Chapter 2 explains how history can help us understand why particular culture traits appear in the culture of surgeons. Thorough descriptions of the barriers to effective communication between surgeons and their patients, and the implications of these barriers, are in chapters 5 and 6. Case studies describe how many decisions are made based on complex issues, including professional ties and financial interests (7, 8, and 9). And also includes a detailed description of operating room rituals (10). For anyone with an interest in medical culture.

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Price: $16.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this sweeping history of animal research and the animal protection movement, Deborah Rudacille examines the ethical question of whether enhancement of human life justifies the use of animals for research. She shows how the question and the answers provided by both scientists and anti- vivisectionists over the past 150 years have shaped contemporary society. Rudacille anchors her narrative in events from the lives of key players in the history of the war between science and animal protection, describing the work of activists who work outside the law as well as those working to change the system from within..
Price: $4.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Foreword by Robert K. Kric, 8 b/w photos 6 x 9 "Amid the flood of Civil War books that washes over us each year, Dr. Thomas Lowry's works have long stood out for their brilliant research, originality, and insight Now, with his accomplished co-author Dr. Jack Welsh, he has produced a work as fascinating to the average reader as it is useful to the specialist. Tarnished Scalpels offers us a richer portrait of our greatest war's reality than could any other ten books on the subject. These are tales of folly, fear, and shame, well told by men who understand both medicine and good writing." -Owen Parry, author of Faded Coat Of Blue As in his previous book, Tarnished Eagles (0-8117-1597-3), Thomas Lowry-this time with Jack Welsh-brings to light the various misdeeds of Union officers. In this new book, the authors examine the relationship between the principles of the medical profession and the often byzantine regulations of the army. As a result, the courts-martial in this book primarily fall into two categories: failure to practice proper medicine and failure to follow the procedures and administrative rules that govern army life, with some overlap. As usual, Lowry peppers many of these accounts with his dry wit, but he also offers penetrating analyses of the problems faced by many of these doctors, who often were forced to work under intolerable conditions. Thomas Lowry, a retired psychiatrist, is the author of several books on the Civil War, including the controversial The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War (0-8117-1515-9). Jack D. Welsh, professor of medicine emeritus at University of Oklahoma, has written for and edited many medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. He is also the author of Medical Histories of Confederate Generals and Medical Histories of Union Generals..
Price: $9.87 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A collection of essays--written by physicians, philosophers, and a nurse--seeks to restore empathy to medical practice, describing how empathy is lost during a medical education and how this can be remedied..
Price: $0.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]