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Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unitby Michael Ruhlman
Viking , 14-Apr-03. Hardcover. Very Good. GREAT BOOK! MILD WEAR ON DUSTJACKET, LIGHTLY AGED, SMUDGED ON EDGE BUT NO MARKINGS IN TEXT. Description: Ruhlman, author of SOUL OF A CHEF, follows the exploits of the pediatric heart center at the Cleveland Clinic, focusing on the world-renowned Dr. Roger Mee. Along the way, Ruhlman offers a glimpse into some of the most controversial topics about pediatric health care in America. ""From Publishers Weekly: What kind of person operates on babies' hearts for a living? This is the question Ruhlman set out to answer when he entered the pediatric heart center at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, to observe Dr. Roger Mee, one of the best pediatric heart surgeons in the world, and his team at work. Ruhlman, who has written two other books about people striving for excellence (The Soul of a Chef and Wooden Boats), describes with awe the precision, speed and ingenuity required to repair or transplant an infant's tiny heart. His gripping OR scenes capture the life-and-death nature of each surgery and illustrate why only perfection is good enough in this new and rapidly developing specialty. As the clinic's physician's assistant tells Ruhlman with a bluntness characteristic of the people he depicts, This is a kid, not a Yugo here. The anguish the families endure only adds to the pressure on the surgeons. And while congenital heart defects are the most common kind of birth defect, the book reveals that most parents are unaware of the vast difference between having surgery performed by a virtuoso like Dr. Mee and an average surgeon whom a local cardiologist might feel compelled to refer patients to because of HMO protocols. Ruhlman also provides some historical context, weaving in the stories of the maverick surgeons who pioneered the specialty. Although the medical terminology can slow the reader down at times, most will tear through this engaging and often wrenching account. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc."" ""Description: Michael Ruhlman is fascinated by people at work-especially those in pursuit of perfection. The Soul of a Chef and Wooden Boats have established him as a deft chronicler of unique cultural microcosms. Now, in Walk on Water, he documents life in the most intense environment yet-a pediatric heart center specializing in neonatal open-heart surgery. The precision needed for such delicate surgery puts """"soul-crushing, diamond-making stress"""" on physicians and nurses every time they operate. The colorful focus of Ruhlman's narrative is the Cleveland Clinic's world-renowned, idiosyncratic Dr. Roger Mee-a virtuoso within a very select surgical specialty and a mine of information on statistics, ethics, and medical politics. A riveting glimpse into the heart and mind of a man in whose hands literally rests a young baby's life on a daily basis, Walk on Water explores controversial topics-from questionable referral patterns by cardiologists to physicians who are punished for doing what's best for their patients to physicians who don't do what's best for their patients-and breaks the taboo on subjects not often written about. \n\nWalk on Water is a must for all readers of serious nonfiction that will also have health professionals and the media paying rapt attention."" ISBN: 0670032018.
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