Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations
Written by Arnold van de Laar
Narrated by Rich Keeble
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Surgeon Arnold van de Laar uses his own experience and expertise to tell this engrossing history of surgery through 28 famous operations—from Louis XIV and Einstein to JFK and Houdini.
From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers a wealth of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating room.
What happens during an operation? How does the human body respond to being attacked by a knife, a bacterium, a cancer cell or a bullet? And, as medical advances continuously push the boundaries of what medicine can cure, what are the limits of surgery?
With stories spanning the dark centuries of bloodletting and amputations without anaesthetic through today's sterile, high-tech operating rooms, Under the Knife is both a rich cultural history, and a modern anatomy class for us all.
Arnold van de Laar
Arnold van de Laar is a surgeon in the Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam, specialising in laparoscopic surgery. Born in 1969 in the Dutch town of 's-Hertogenbosch, van de Laar became fascinated by how the human body works in school biology lessons and went on to study medicine at the Belgian University of Leuven. Having travelled the world - the Himalayas, Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, Kashmir, and extensively in Africa - van de Laar took his first job as general surgeon on the Caribbean Island of Sint Maarten. He started writing pieces on surgical history in the Dutch medical journal Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Heelkunde in 2009. He now lives in Amsterdam with his wife and two children where, a true Dutchman, he cycles to work every day. Under the Knife is his first book.
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Reviews for Under the Knife
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Some interesting anecdotes, info and fun facts but was ultimately too dry and tedious for me. It would have been better if there was some sort of theme or organization to the stories - they all felt very disconnected and disorganized and included too many dry extraneous and tedious details.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely enjoyable read for anyone in the medical field, interested in medicine, or just enjoy learning. Listened on the way to work over a few days and still find myself bringing up things I learned in this book in casual conversation.