Hot LIghts, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights

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	• Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years Michael J. Collins St. Martin's Press, 2005 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Blood, Sweat and Tears

This is a well-written and highly polished memoir about an Orthopaedic surgeon's four year residency at the famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Dr. Collins is a good writer, giving the impression that he poured his heart and soul into this text: it's funny, at times sad and gruesome in parts, but again, reading about the training surgeon, one gets the distinct feeling that these men and women, having to run through the depths of hell to finally get qualified, must be born to the task - or simply masochistic by nature.

If this memoir is to be believed, and there's no reason why it shouldn't, every nightmare story that you have heard about the four-year residency is absolutely true. It's astounding that these people manage to survive - the tortuous long stretches on their feet saving lives, sometimes reaching 60 to 70 hours is nothing less than miraculous. Treating patients day and night, constantly worrying that you'll screw up, taking peoples lives in your hands could send the most grounded individual around the bend - in some cases it does, but for the most part, these people get through to become qualified surgeons, as did Dr. Collins, but through a lot of blood sweat and tears.

Hot Lights, Cold Steel reads like a novel, as the characterization, structure of the plot and the pathos, the utter sadness of some of his cases, and the joy and exhilaration of his successes, had me just as enthralled as any top selling thriller. Dr. Collins has a gift for description as he illustrates the amputation of a limb, including a section of the patient's pelvis, in such detailed imagery, that it became difficult to read. He also has a great sense of humour, which I believe is so necessary to survive in this profession.

One of the more terrible of the Dr.'s experiences was the attempted resuscitation of a six year old boy who had been run over by a drunk. Collins and the ER staff did everything humanly possible to save the child, but his injuries were too severe. The undeserved death of innocence is hard to take, and it affected the attending staff in a big way. This was also terribly difficult to read. Then there was the young kindergarten teacher who just came in because of a slight pain in her hip, to discover her entire skeleton was riddled with cancer, unfortunately she died six months later. After reading about these cases one realizes that life is fleeting and fragile, and should never be taken for granted.

I have always had great respect for those in the medical profession, but this book has doubled that respect and opened my eyes to their tenacity, courage and skill. This is a great book and is highly recommended.

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Hot LIghts, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights

This is a book that is not soon to be forgotten.

Much of it will stay with me forever. Dr. Collins writes in a manner familiar to me. He reminds me of some college friends as his humor is similar. This fine book brought back college memories. I am also from Chicago. I am fortunate know many Irish jokesters with beaming smiles. The Doctor is also a fine surgeon who tells us details of the struggle, the pain and the thoughts, anguish - unplanned events of life. I like how the book drew me in to his world at Mayo. I felt tired from seeing the pain of many innocent patients. I felt my eyes crinkle from lack of sleep. I would definitely read other books by Dr. Collins! Absolutely!!

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Great, Grand, and Wonderful!

I have read many nonfiction medical experiences but none were as fun and constantly interesting as this one was. I loved the quick wit humor, the down to earth descriptions, and his love for his wife (I did experience postpartum depression for her due to her continuous pregnancies)! Dr. Collins tries to be modest in his descriptions of how he felt incapable many times during his residency but his true high intelligence comes through in his actions and sincere feelings for his profession and people. I live in Minnesota so I appreciate his respect he had for the Mayo Clinic and the surrounding communities. I will grab the next publication he writes without hesitation. This book was too short!

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Realistic view of a Surgeon's life

Collins has a really unique voice in medical writing - he recounts his years as a resident with self-deprecating and endearing honesty. I laughed wryly along with him as he struggled with money woes and drove a series of terrifically undignified cars (who knew residents were so poorly paid?), cried as he struggled with his emotions over patients who touched him with their tragic circumstances, gasped in horror at some of the surgical details, and then laughed again at some of the sillier cases.

One of my favorite bits is when he is trying to extract a fishhook from a guy's nose, and he asks the nurse to hand him a pediatric speculum. The guys bellows out some curse words to the effect of "no way is THAT going up my nose!", and Collins, tired of reasoning with the man about it, asks the nurse for the "fishhook extracting nostril dilator", all but winking at her to get her to understand. The man's disgust when the fishhook is finally extracted and he realizes just what that nostril dilator is usually used for is classic.

This book, while a difficult read in a lot of places, has a lot of moments like that one which liven it up and make the emotionally difficult situations easier to read about. I truly enjoyed reading it and will certainly be looking out for the next one by Michael Collins.

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Credit Where Credit is Due

Doctor Micheal Collins's honest portrayal of the profession for which he has come to love and the struggles which he went through to reach it acts as a window into an aspect of the medical field which is rarely viewed. His depiction of the grueling years of residency and the inner conflict experienced in a profession where detachment is necessary, prove for an interesting approach to a light-hearted novel. Although the tempo and theme may both be easy going the novels purpose, to bestow honor upon those who care for us and that honest mistakes must happen for great achievements to succeed are anything but light. His struggle to maintain a loving family and be a caring doctor, sometimes working up to 120 hours a week, show the extreme pressures of residency and what those who look after us must go through to earn their keep. Nothing is easy, Collin's states, especially when the word sleep has no meaning. The deep conflict Collins relays, the struggle to make a difference in situations where one must force themselves to only focus on the task at hand seems to slowly deteriorate the emotions involved in a profession which is so emotional. Collin's struggle to remain passionate without driving himself insane by being overly sensitive to each case show a side to residency that may very well be the most difficult. This novel is a great insight for those considering the medical field and would like a fair, unbiased opinion from someone who has not only been there, but went for the right reasons.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7

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