Every time surgeons operate, they're betting their skills are better than the brain tumor, the faulty heart valve, the fractured femur. Sometimes, they're wrong. At Chelsea General, surgeons answer for bad outcomes at the Morbidity and Mortality conference, known as M & M. This extraordinary peek behind the curtain into what is considered the most secretive meeting in all of medicine is the back drop for the entire book.
Monday Mornings, by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, follows the lives of five surgeons at Chelsea General as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings, often in front of their peers at M & M. It is on Monday mornings that reflection and introspection occurs, usually in private. It is Monday Mornings that provides a unique look at the real method in which surgeons learn - through their mistakes. It is Monday Mornings when, if you're lucky, you have a chance at redemption.
Review
"MONDAY MORNINGS launches off the page like a thoroughbred out of the gates: the pace is fast and furious and the authenticity of the surgical situations make this a hard-to-put-down novel. Gupta has created a group of unforgettable characters and placed them in situations in the fictional Chelsea General that feel all too real. But hospitals are , after all, Gupta's turf; his insights into the craft of surgery combined with vivid story-telling make MONDAY MORNINGS a gripping and wonderful read right down to the wire. MONDAY MORNINGS is a winner. (Abraham Verghese, author of *Cutting for Stone* )
"A brilliant and authentic inside look at the high-stakes world of neurosurgery, filled with memorable characters and searing moments, written with a surgeon's deftness and a healer's heart." (Samuel Shem, M.D., author of The House of God and* The Spirit of the Place* )
"In MONDAY MORNINGS, Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes us inside the veins of the patients, the hospital, and the brilliant surgeons at Chelsea General in a thrilling, often funny, and sometimes heartbreaking read. You'll laugh. You'll cry. I could not put it down." (David E. Kelley, creator of Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, and *Chicago Hope* )
About the Author
Sanjay Gupta, MD, is a practicing neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital and associate chief of service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.