eBook

Doctors at War

Mark de Rond

2017

Overview

Doctors at Waris a candid account of a trauma surgical team based, for a tour of duty, at a field hospital in Helmand, Afghanistan. Mark de Rond tells of the highs and lows of surgical life in hard-hitting detail, bringing to life a morally ambiguous world in which good people face impossible choices and in which routines designed to normalize experience have the unintended effect of highlighting war's absurdity. With stories that are at once comical and tragic, de Rond captures the surreal experience of being a doctor at war. He lifts the cover on a world rarely ever seen, let alone written about, and provides a poignant counterpoint to the archetypical, adrenaline-packed, macho tale of what it is like to go to war. Here the crude and visceral coexist with the tender and affectionate. The author tells of well-meaning soldiers at hospital reception, there to deliver a pair of legs in the belief that these can be reattached to their comrade, now in mid-surgery; of midsummer Christmas parties and pancake breakfasts and late-night sauna sessions; of interpersonal rivalries and banter; of caring too little or too much; of tenderness and compassion fatigue; of hell and redemption; of heroism and of playing God. While many good firsthand accounts of war by frontline soldiers exist, this is one of the first books ever to bring to life the experience of the surgical teams tasked with mending what war destroys.

• Publisher: Cornell University Press,ILR Press
• Subject: Afghan war military history / Afghan War, 2001 / Afghanistan / Anatomy / Anthropology / battlefield medicine / BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical / BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military / combat trauma / compassion fatigue / dark humor / Diseases / doctor / doctor at war / Doctors / Doctors at War / emotion / Epidemics / ethical dilemmas / field hospital / frontline care / healing amid chaos / Health / Health Sciences / Healthcare / Helmand / heroism / HISTORY / HISTORY / Military / Afghan War (2001-) / Hospitals / human consequences of war / human resilience / Illness / impossible choices / MEDICAL / MEDICAL / History / Medical advancements / Medical breakthroughs / Medical care / medical community / Medical discoveries / Medical education / medical ethics / Medical field / Medical innovations / Medical journals / Medical literature / MEDICINE & MEDICAL ISSUES / Medicine, Military / Military / MILITARY HISTORY / Military hospitals / moral ambiguity / Patients / rationality / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social / Surgery, Military / surgical life / surgical team / survival in war / trauma surgery / visceral experiences / war / war medicine / war memoir
• ISBN: 9781501707933, 1501707930, 1501705482, 9781501705489, 9781501707940, 1501707949