Surgery

Maina-Miriam Munsky, "Eingriff IV (Chirurgs)", (1973)

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative techniques on a patient to treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.

Quotes

• I would like to see the day when somebody would be appointed surgeon somewhere who had no hands, for the operative part is the least part of the work.
  • Harvey Cushing, American surgeon, Letter to Henry Christian (November 20, 1911)

• I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.
• [Words he used to refuse heart surgery the day before he passed away.]
  • Albert Einstein, Einsteins Legacy: The Final Chapter, Albert Einstein dies soon after a blood vessel bursts near his heart. American Museum of Natural History April 18, 1955

• Vulnera, quae melius non tetigisse fuit.
  • Some wounds grow worse beneath the surgeon's hand;
    'Twere better that they were not touched at all.
  • Ovid, Epistolae ex Ponto, III, vii, 25.

• Surgery is the red flower that blooms among the leaves and thorns that are the rest of medicine.
  • Richard Seltzer, American physician, Letters to a Young Doctor (1982)

• Surgery has a fascination possessed by few occupations. By its aid diseases and injury, incurable by nature alone or aided by altering the constitution of the body fluids, can be eradicated or assisted in such a way that natural processes are enabled to bring about a cure.
  • James Sherren (October 1, 1924) "An Address on the Value of Pathological and X Ray Examinations in Abdominal Surgery". The Lancet: 689–693.

• A criminal kills for money or just because. It's disgusting, and he's punished with death.

A jealous man kills because suffering drives him mad. He's punished more lightly. Sometimes he's even forgiven. People do respect love, after all. However, for a killer, sometimes the worst thing is to stay alive. But he recovers with time. Usually.

A driver kills by accident. He's unfortunate. It pounces on him like a beast, crippling him. Sometimes for life. But what can you do? You can't allow drivers to run over people with impunity.

There are also wars.

And here, at the very end, are we, surgeons. No one calls us murderers. Noble goals. A man is in danger, a doctor courageously fights for their life, and sometimes—well, loses. Failed. What can you do?

…

I've thought a lot, again and again. Thousands of complex, even very complex, surgeries and… quite a few deaths. Among them, many for which I am directly responsible. No, no, these are not murders! Everything within me shudders and protests. After all, I knowingly took risks to save a life.

• Nikolai Amosov, from The Thoughts and the Heart, 1964

• Every surgeon has occasions throughout his life when his vision, mind, and hands achieve the greatest harmony, when the activity of thought turns into a series of brilliant insights, when the trivialities of the surrounding world completely disappear and only one thing remains: a duel of knowledge and talent against the dull idiocy of death standing right there.
  • Yuri German, from My Dear Man novel, 1962