Several of you have asked about the title of Abraham Verghese's book "Cutting for Stone."
In addition to being a superb novelist, Verghese's day job is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Additional clues to the title are (1) the book is about surgeons and (2) the surgeons' (father and sons) name is "Stone."
My friend, Nancy,by coincidence, was reading the book at the same time I was. But she finished well before me. She said she couldn't put it down and read the last part in five hours straight.
For the record, I've never done anything - even things I love to do - for five hours straight.
Another clue: Nancy pointed out that in Verghese's epilogue, he points out that each year he renews his vowels to medicine at commencement along with the graduates in part by saying ...I swear ... to be true to her (Medicine) for she is the source of all...I shall not cut for stone."
But in an interview Verghese clarifies,
(The term) stems from the days when bladder stones were epidemic, a cause of great suffering, probably from bad water and who knows what else. There were itinerant stone cutters...who could cut either into the bladder or the perineum and get the stone out, but because they cleaned the knife by wiping in on their blood-stiffened surgical aprons, patients usually died of infection the next day. Hence..."Thou shall not cut for stone."
(Also this is a classic example of "The operation was success but the patient died.")
If you love all things medical as I do, you'll love this book. Once, many years ago, I saw a vasectomy being performed. I told my family that it looked pretty easy and I thought I could do it. (Yes, they were scared.)
In "Cutting for Stone" there is an entire chapter devoted to Ghosh instructing another doctor on how to perform a vasectomy.
Now I'm sure I can do it.
***
In addition to being a superb novelist, Verghese's day job is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Additional clues to the title are (1) the book is about surgeons and (2) the surgeons' (father and sons) name is "Stone."
My friend, Nancy,by coincidence, was reading the book at the same time I was. But she finished well before me. She said she couldn't put it down and read the last part in five hours straight.
For the record, I've never done anything - even things I love to do - for five hours straight.
Another clue: Nancy pointed out that in Verghese's epilogue, he points out that each year he renews his vowels to medicine at commencement along with the graduates in part by saying ...I swear ... to be true to her (Medicine) for she is the source of all...I shall not cut for stone."
But in an interview Verghese clarifies,
(The term) stems from the days when bladder stones were epidemic, a cause of great suffering, probably from bad water and who knows what else. There were itinerant stone cutters...who could cut either into the bladder or the perineum and get the stone out, but because they cleaned the knife by wiping in on their blood-stiffened surgical aprons, patients usually died of infection the next day. Hence..."Thou shall not cut for stone."
(Also this is a classic example of "The operation was success but the patient died.")
If you love all things medical as I do, you'll love this book. Once, many years ago, I saw a vasectomy being performed. I told my family that it looked pretty easy and I thought I could do it. (Yes, they were scared.)
In "Cutting for Stone" there is an entire chapter devoted to Ghosh instructing another doctor on how to perform a vasectomy.
Now I'm sure I can do it.
***
