Do No Harm

1. Pineocytoma

Overview

Overview

This chapter opens a window into the high-stakes world of neurosurgery through the lens of a single, delicate operation: the removal of a pineal gland tumor. It explores the profound intersection of science and soul, detailing not just the technical ballet of brain surgery but the heavy emotional weight carried by the surgeon. We are guided through the preparation, execution, and aftermath of the procedure, all while grappling with the haunting memory of a recent surgical disaster that left a young woman paralyzed.

The Rare and Deep-Seated Tumor

A pineocytoma is an uncommon, slow-growing tumor located in the pineal gland, a tiny structure buried deep in the brain's center. Historically, this area was philosophically significant—Descartes once speculated it housed the human soul. For a neurosurgeon, reaching it is a formidable challenge, akin to a mountaineer facing a great peak. These tumors range from benign to malignant, and while modern techniques have made them operable, the decision to intervene is never taken lightly, balancing the risks of surgery against the threat of the disease itself.

A Patient in Crisis

The patient is a high-powered executive who initially mistook his symptoms for stress-related headaches. The reality was far graver: a pineal tumor causing obstructive hydrocephalus, a life-threatening buildup of fluid in his brain. Faced with losing control, he anxiously typed every medical term into his smartphone, a futile attempt to command his fate. His wife's palpable fear added to the tension, as the surgeon navigated difficult pre-operative conversations, offering cautious hope while outlining the very real dangers of death or major stroke.

The Weight of Previous Failure

The surgeon approaches this operation burdened by a recent catastrophe. A week earlier, a routine-seeming surgery on a spinal cord tumor left a young mother paralyzed on one side. This failure casts a long shadow, fueling dread and shattering the usual confident facade. The memory is a raw wound, a stark reminder that despite technology and skill, outcomes are never guaranteed, and every surgeon carries an internal cemetery of regrets.

In the Theatre: Fear and Focus

The operation begins under a cloud of anxiety. The surgeon, usually calm, experiences severe stage fright. Assisted by Mike, a trusted trainee, they position the patient and begin the meticulous process of opening the skull. The procedure to access the pineal region is described with poetic anatomical reverence—it involves navigating a natural crevice in the brain, a tunnel leading to the central core where vital structures like the Great Vein of Galen and the brainstem reside. Injury here means death or permanent coma.

A Moment of Truth

As the surgeon carefully advances, each decision feels magnified. Dividing blood vessels is fraught with tension. Upon reaching the granular red tumor, a fragment is sent for immediate pathological analysis—a frozen section. The forty-five-minute wait is agonizing, filled with hope for a benign diagnosis. The news finally comes: it's a straightforward benign pineocytoma. This transforms the operation's trajectory, allowing for a less aggressive and safer removal.

The Cooperative Tumor

Fortune favors the procedure. The tumor proves "cooperative," with a clear plane separating it from the surrounding brain. The surgeon cores it out over hours, a tense but successful excavation. A visiting colleague’s offhand comment—“Things only go wrong when you're not expecting them”—hangs in the air, a reminder of perpetual vigilance. The tumor is fully removed without damaging the eloquent brain.

Confronting the Past and Present

After the operation, the surgeon must face the paralyzed young woman from the previous week. The encounter is painfully awkward, charged with guilt and broken trust. Yet, a fragile thread of hope is offered. In stark contrast, the pineal patient wakes well, and the atmosphere in recovery is light and celebratory. The surgeon finds his wife in the corridor, and in a raw, unguarded moment, they share a tearful relief that transcends professional detachment. The chapter closes on this tentative victory, a balm for the soul but not an erasure of past mistakes.

Key Takeaways

• Neurosurgery is a discipline where advanced technology coexists with profound uncertainty, and a surgeon's skill must be tempered by humility and the wisdom to know when not to operate.
• The brain is not just intricate matter; operating on it is an intervention into the very seat of identity, memory, and consciousness, a concept that remains fundamentally strange.
• Every surgeon operates under the weight of past outcomes, where success and failure are deeply personal and shape future confidence and decisions.
• The patient-surgeon relationship is a complex human bond, fraught with fear, trust, and shared vulnerability, especially in moments of crisis and recovery.
• Even in a field driven by science, luck and the unpredictable nature of disease play significant roles, underscoring the art within the science of medicine.

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2. Aneurysm

Overview

The chapter opens with a formative memory of neurosurgery as an awe-inspiring, almost mythical craft, witnessed through a theatre porthole. Years later, as a junior doctor, a chance to observe the delicate clipping of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm cemented the author's career path. The narrative then contrasts this with the present day, where he is now the seasoned surgeon, reflecting on how his hard-won skills have been made largely obsolete by less invasive techniques, leaving only the most complex cases for his expertise.

This sets the stage for a detailed account of one such case. The ritual of the morning scan meeting, with its dark humor, reveals an incidental aneurysm in a young woman. We then see the profound weight of the surgical decision, explored first in the statistical balancing act explained to the patient and later in the surgeon's private pre-operative dread. Despite his candid advice, the patient chooses surgery to relieve the psychological burden of living with what she perceives as a time bomb in her head.

The operation itself becomes a story of two realms. There is the microscope's magical realm, a hyper-real, intensely private world of pristine anatomy where the surgeon works in focused isolation. The initial dissection is smooth, but the procedure is nearly undone by a simple equipment failure—a jammed clip applicator that leaves him frozen in a moment of extreme peril. This crisis forces him to confront the surgeon's eternal dilemma: accepting a good enough result or risking everything for perfection. His choice to reposition the clip, haunted by memories of past disasters, underscores the high-wire act of microsurgery.

In the aftermath, the surgeon's reflection is tempered. The youthful exhilaration of success has been replaced by a quiet, solitary knowledge of the catastrophe narrowly avoided. A good recovery is met with a family's anger over the ordeal, highlighting how the ideal outcome—a patient who returns to normal life and forgets the surgeon—leaves the professional alone with the memory of having briefly touched both heaven and hell.

A Chance Encounter with Neurosurgery

As a medical student, neurosurgery was an impenetrable, forbidden world. The author’s only glimpse was through a theatre door’s porthole, witnessing a scene that seemed more like a horror film than medicine: a shaven-headed patient, an imposing surgeon, and the ritualistic application of iodine.

Years later, as a disillusioned junior doctor, he was invited into that same theatre. He observed an operation to clip a ruptured cerebral aneurysm—a delicate, high-stakes procedure performed under a microscope. The atmosphere was tense and silent, compared to bomb disposal. The surgeon worked deep within the brain, manipulating fragile blood vessels where a single error could cause fatal hemorrhage. Witnessing the elegant, dangerous capture of the aneurysm with a tiny titanium clip was a revelation. It involved the brain, the "mysterious substrate of all thought and feeling." In that moment, he knew with certainty he wanted to be a neurosurgeon.

The Surgeon’s Craft and Its Obsolescence

The narrative jumps forward thirty years. The author, now an experienced neurosurgeon nearing retirement, cycles to work on a rainy Monday to perform a clipping. He reflects on how his hard-won skills have been largely made obsolete by endovascular coiling—a less invasive procedure performed by radiologists. While this is better for patients, it represents a professional loss for surgeons like him. He now focuses mostly on brain tumors, with only the occasional complex aneurysm requiring his surgical expertise.

The Morning Ritual: Scans and Sardonic Humor

The day begins with the departmental morning meeting, a practice inspired by Hill Street Blues to foster team spirit. In a dark, windowless room, consultants and junior doctors gather to review the brain scans of emergency admissions from the last 24 hours. With a blend of black humor and clinical detachment, they examine images of catastrophe—hemorrhages, injuries, tumors—looking for "interesting" operative cases.

During this meeting, a scan of a 32-year-old woman is presented. The author quizzes the juniors, guiding them to identify an incidental, unruptured aneurysm. He leads a discussion on the dilemma it presents: the lifelong risk of rupture versus the immediate risk of surgical complication. The statistics are chilling and the decision is unclear.

The Weight of the Decision

The story backtracks to the author's initial outpatient consultation with the woman. She was referred for headaches, but the scan had revealed an unrelated aneurysm, turning her into an anxious patient convinced she had a "time bomb" in her head. He carefully explains the balanced risks: a 4-5% chance of stroke or death from surgery versus a similar cumulative lifetime risk of a fatal bleed if left alone. Despite his honesty and his personal admission that he would not choose surgery for himself, the woman is adamant. She cannot bear the psychological burden of living with the aneurysm and chooses the operation.

Prelude to Surgery

On the Sunday evening before the operation, the author visits the woman in the hospital, battling his own habitual sense of foreboding. He obtains her final consent, buoyed somewhat by the trust his patients place in him. The next morning, after the meeting, he finds her calm in the anaesthetic room.

In the theatre, preparations begin. The author works with his American registrar, Jeff. They use a minimal head shave, a departure from the dehumanizing full shaves of the past. Gowned and gloved, the author begins the procedure, opening the skull with drills. Finally, he calls for the microscope.

The Microscope’s Magical Realm

The moment the author settles into his chair and looks through the operating microscope is described with profound reverence. The £100,000 machine provides a view of the brain that is clearer and more brilliant than the outside world—a private, intense, and magical realm. Despite modern talk of "team-working," he describes the experience as "single combat." With the brain exposed, a retractor in place, and his assistant beside him, he is ready to begin the hunt for the aneurysm.

The Microscopic Journey

The surgeon elevates the frontal lobe, meticulously creating a space to advance toward the aneurysm. Using the microscope feels like a physical descent into the patient's head, the instruments becoming extensions of his own fingers. He carefully dissects the delicate, web-like arachnoid membrane around the carotid artery, revealing a pristine surgical field free from the ravages of a rupture. Cerebrospinal fluid glistens, and the brain's surface—etched with minute blood vessels—is laid bare.

Following the pulsing middle cerebral artery deep into the Sylvian fissure is surprisingly straightforward in this case; the brain parts easily, "unzipping" itself to reveal the aneurysm, fully exposed and ready for clipping. The mood lightens, as the greatest risk—a rupture before securing the aneurysm—seems past. The surgeon describes the nightmare of a premature rupture: a catastrophic whirlpool of blood where the surgeon feels he is drowning, with few patients surviving.

A Crisis with the Clip

The surgeon initially lets his assistant, Jeff, take over to place the clip, but watches nervously as he fumbles. Taking back control, he encounters a critical equipment failure: the first clip applicator jams, refusing to open. A second applicator allows him to clip the aneurysm, but then refuses to release the clip, leaving him frozen, unable to move for fear of tearing the aneurysm from the artery. Forced to reopen the clip—risking a rupture—he then angrily hurls the faulty instrument across the room.

With his nerves frayed, he uses a third applicator to successfully clip the aneurysm, though the placement isn't perfect. A small portion of the aneurysm's neck remains exposed. He wrestles with the surgeon's eternal dilemma: accept a "good enough" result or risk repositioning the clip and provoking a catastrophic hemorrhage. Haunted by memories of past disasters, he chooses precision over haste, repositions the clip twice more until he is satisfied.

The Surgeon's Reflection

Post-operation, the surgeon reflects on the randomness of fate and the diminished joy he now feels compared to his younger years. The intense exhilaration of past successes has been tempered by experience, disaster, and mistakes. He visits the patient, who is recovering with typical post-operative discomforts, and is met with anger from her husband, who likely didn't fully appreciate the risks. The surgeon muses that the greatest success is when a patient recovers completely and forgets the surgeon, returning to normal life. The surgeon, however, is left with the profound, solitary knowledge of having briefly touched both heaven and hell.

Key Takeaways

• Precision Under Pressure: Aneurysm surgery is a high-stakes balance between technical skill and the courage to make critical decisions in milliseconds, where perfection is pursued but often negotiated against risk.
• The Human Element in Technology: Even with advanced microsurgical skill, the operation remains vulnerable to simple mechanical failure, highlighting the intense, hands-on craft of surgery.
• The Surgeon's Burden: Successful outcomes bring a deep but quiet satisfaction, heavily tempered by the memory of past failures. The surgeon carries the hidden emotional weight of the catastrophe narrowly avoided, a knowledge the fully recovered patient will never share.
• Defining Success: The ideal surgical outcome is one where the patient returns to life without needing the surgeon again, while the surgeon alone holds the memory of how close the journey came to disaster.

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Do No Harm

3. Haemangioblastoma

Overview

The chapter opens with the neurosurgeon’s anticipation of operating on a rare, benign but dangerous cerebellar haemangioblastoma—a tumor comprised of a mass of blood vessels. The narrative follows the journey of his patient, a forty-year-old accountant, from a tense preoperative consultation through the intricate surgery, while simultaneously weaving in the chaotic backdrop of hospital IT failures and other emergency cases that define the surgeon’s demanding day. It is a story that contrasts technical precision with systemic fragility, and professional detachment with profound human connection.

The Consultation: Informed Consent and Its Illusions

The surgeon meets his patient, a man suffering from severe headaches whose polycythaemia (excess red blood cells) gives him a permanently red face. Showing the man his brain scan, the surgeon points out the “flow voids” that look like black snakes, indicating the rapid blood flow through the tumor. He explains the necessity of surgery: while benign and curable, the tumor will be fatal if left untreated. The process of obtaining “informed consent” is portrayed as deeply flawed. The patient, terrified and reliant on the surgeon’s authority, signs the lengthy form without reading it. The surgeon reflects on the ethical weight of this moment—how a patient’s trust is placed in him without them ever asking about his experience or success rate, and how he must balance honesty with avoiding unnecessary terror.

Theatre Delays and Systemic Chaos

On the morning of surgery, a critical delay occurs because the hospital’s new computer system, iCLIP, has malfunctioned. The patient’s blood test results are lost in the digital transition, symbolized by a hapless “Floorwalker” tasked with fixing the system. The surgeon’s initial irritation gives way to “fatalistic despair” at the bureaucracy. This interruption disrupts the careful ritual of preparation that usually calms his “surgical stage fright.” The delay highlights the clash between the high-stakes, orderly world of surgery and the chaotic, impersonal machinery of the modern hospital.

Metamorphosis in Theatre

Once the patient is finally anaesthetized and positioned, a psychological shift occurs for the surgeon. The living person becomes an “object” of work, and his dread transforms into “fierce and happy concentration.” The patient is placed in the risky “sitting position” to reduce blood loss and improve access, which carries the danger of air being sucked into the heart if a vein is torn. The operation itself is a meticulous exercise in microsurgery: the tumor must be removed in one piece (“en bloc”) to avoid catastrophic bleeding. The surgeon carefully develops a plane between the tumor and the brain, coagulating the tiny bridging blood vessels. The successful removal of the small, thumb-sized tumor is an anticlimactic triumph.

Parallel Emergencies and Evening Interruptions

Post-surgery, the surgeon’s day is far from over. He is called about an emergency case—a man with a catastrophic brain bleed from an arterio-venous malformation (AVM). He delegates this to his capable registrar, James. Later, while grocery shopping, he receives an irritating call from an A&E doctor about a non-urgent case, which turns out to be a misinterpreted scan. This episode underscores the constant intrusions and the friction between departments. Finally, James calls from theatre struggling with bleeding in the AVM case; the surgeon advises him to take a break, humorously noting that “tea is the best haemostatic agent.” Returning to the hospital, he finds James has finished successfully.

Contrasting Realities: ITU and a Parking Notice

The surgeon checks on his haemangioblastoma patient in the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), a “war zone” of critically ill patients and technology. His patient, awake and well, is a rare success story amidst the surrounding devastation. Leaving in a “contented frame of mind,” this satisfaction is shattered in the hospital basement when he finds a threatening clamp notice on his car—which turns out to be only a warning (“Next time!!”). The chapter ends with him torn between “impotent rage and gratitude,” a fitting summation of a day filled with professional mastery set against relentless institutional absurdity.

Key Takeaways

• Haemangioblastomas are rare, benign brain tumors composed of blood vessels; they are curable with surgery but fatal if untreated, and their removal requires highly skilled technique to avoid massive hemorrhage.
• The concept of informed consent is deeply problematic in practice, relying more on patient trust and surgeon integrity than on a truly rational, informed decision-making process.
• Surgical focus requires a psychological metamorphosis, where the patient becomes the object of concentrated technical skill, separating the surgeon’s emotion from the task.
• The surgeon’s work exists in a constant tension between human skill and systemic failure, exemplified by chaotic IT systems, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and inter-departmental miscommunications.
• A neurosurgeon’s day is a juggling act of planned operations, genuine emergencies, and false alarms, extending far beyond the operating theatre into all hours.
• The emotional landscape is one of extreme contrasts, swinging between the profound gratitude of a saved life and the petty frustrations of institutional life.

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4. Melodrama

Overview

The Operation on Melanie

The narrative follows the intricate, high-stakes surgery to remove Melanie's suprasellar meningioma. The procedure begins with a festive, almost carnival-like atmosphere in the operating theatre, filled with obstetric and paediatric teams eager for the impending birth. The author and his senior registrar, Patrik, perform a meticulous craniotomy, using specialized tools like a Gigli saw to create a small, cosmetically neat opening above her eye. A lumbar drain successfully creates space by removing cerebrospinal fluid, allowing the brain to sit "slack" and providing crucial working room.

Under the microscope, the sight is concerning: the right optic nerve is visibly stretched over the reddish tumour. The author takes over from Patrik, and to his relief, finds the tumour soft and not adherent to the nerves. He carefully debulks and removes it, revealing a clear view of both optic nerves and the critical surrounding structures. With the tumour removed, they close quickly so the obstetric team can perform the Caesarean section. The immediate uncertainty hangs over whether her vision will return, compounded later by Patrik's report that her pupils are reacting slowly—a potential sign of permanent damage.

A Devastating Complication

The chapter then shifts to the second patient, a woman in her fifties with a malignant glioma who had feared a slow death like her father's. Her surgery, performed mostly by Patrik, appears technically successful despite the tumour's aggressive spread. However, shortly after arriving in the Intensive Care Unit, she fails to wake up. A rushed CT scan reveals a massive, inoperable haemorrhage deep in her brain—a fatal postoperative complication.

The author must deliver the tragic news to her husband and daughter. In a poignant scene in the ITU interview room, they grapple with the suddenness of the loss. The husband expresses a tortured mix of trust and devastation, while the daughter asks if her mother can hear them. The author reflects that, inadvertently, he has granted the patient's wish to avoid a protracted, miserable decline, though the outcome is no less brutal for the family.

A Final Case and a Joyful Resolution

Amidst this tragedy, the routine work continues. The author must scrub in to assist Patrik with controlling bleeding in the third case, a routine disc operation. Afterwards, he returns to the ITU to check on Melanie. He is met by her elated husband, who reports that Melanie has woken up and her eyesight has returned almost to normal. She has seen their healthy newborn son. This joyful outcome stands in stark contrast to the death of the second patient, encapsulating the extreme highs and lows of a single day in neurosurgery.

Key Takeaways

• Neurosurgery operates within a spectrum of high-stakes outcomes, where a single day can hold both miraculous success and devastating loss.
• The technical precision of surgery is always shadowed by uncertainty and risk, even when procedures appear to go perfectly.
• Patient narratives are central; the same role—the surgeon—grants one patient her greatest wish (sight and a child) and inadvertently grants another her feared, yet swift, release.
• The emotional reality of surgical practice is a rollercoaster, demanding resilience in the face of profound grief and allowing celebration of profound joy.

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