Cutting Remarks: Insights, Commentary, And Recollections of Becoming a Surgeon

In Cutting Remarks , Dr. Sidney Schwab has provided an entertaining and revealing look into surgical training in the era of total immersion and unregulated work hours, in an old-time county hospital and a university medical center, in San Francisco, 1970 to 1977. With stories ranging from the humorous to the heartbreaking, and with insight and candor, Dr. Schwab describes what it takes to transform an inexperienced medical student into someone “for whom you’d lie on a table and spread open your belly .” He details the colorful characters, teachers and patients alike, whose influences both good and bad still resonate. More than a memoir, Cutting Remarks explains for the layperson many complexities of surgical technique and surgical diseases. Dr. Schwab shares his often pithy opinions about medical issues, ranging from family practice doctors to the state of healthcare today. In informative, amusing, and often graphic prose, he gives first-person insight into a way of teaching doctors that will not be seen again. It’s left to the reader to decide if the loss is good news or bad.