Confessions of a Brain Surgeon - Henry Marsh

[paulguitar]

Did anyone catch this?

I've read Henry Marsh's books and seen previous documentaries. This was exceptional viewing. Here is the link to it on iPlayer:


https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hfbw/con...

[MrBarry123]

Yes, I thought it was excellent too. When he is no longer around, it’ll serve as a fitting tribute to such an impressive man.

[hidetheelephants]

An excellent way of spending an hour.

[K77 CTR]

I haven't watched this yet but have had the pleasure of meeting Henry Marsh, he's an amazing surgeon and an enchanting speaker. Have read his books and his tales of working abroad are intersting despite the obvious changes to political correctness.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

I thought this was an excellent programme and brutally honest, particularly when he met the mother of the boy he didn’t save.

Henry saying that surgeons tend to have inflated egos reminded me of one I went on a date with who clearly had a very high opinion of herself, and I seem to remember a surgeon who started an ‘Ask me anything’ thread on here saying it was typical of them. Having seen what goes on in Henry’s mind I can understand why.

[hidetheelephants]

I think a fairly big ego is possibly necessary to truly believe you can jam your sweaty paws into a body, jiggle the squishy bits, chop some off, sew the remains back together and have a better than evens chance of it working. Without overweening egos like Barnard would the great surgical advances have been made?

[DeejRC]

It’s typical of those at the very sharp end of the brain surgeon/rocket scientist/engineering school.
You have to believe you can go toe to toe with Mother Nature and the laws of the Universe if you wish to challenge them. You are pushing at the very boundary of the known possible things and beyond - because otherwise you aren’t discovering the new stuff, only limiting to the known.

I work in the highest of the high end and I can generally hold my own, but sometimes I thoroughly and happily accept I’ve met and am working with ppl on a different level to me. It’s kind of…peaceful actually, knowing that there really are ppl that bright around, far beyond yourself.

[daqinggregg]

Such a simple documentary and yet so enlightening, so humble, but thought provoking.

I found it odd that he feared death, but I don’t have children, I guess that puts things in a very different light.

You would think someone with such incredible achievements, would have laurels to rest on.

I guess the more you do, the more you open yourself up to reflection.

The world is certainly a better place, because of Henry Marsh.

[NowWatchThisDrive]

Not often I watch anything on terrestrial nowadays but glad I caught this, what a compelling insight into an utterly fascinating man and job. On the one hand he demonstrated (at least when younger) the sort of confidence(/arrogance) in his abilities that you expect of surgeons and which I've encountered occasionally myself both socially and as a patient. But then the level of emotional attachment he clearly had to his failures, and the empathy for those still picking up the pieces, took me (pleasantly) by surprise. Not read or watched any of his other works but I wonder how much it stems from later life philosophy/mellowing; would he have expressed the same sentiments if he'd bumped into the mother (say) 5 years after the event, while he was still very much at the coalface?

Also timely and thought-provoking for me as one of my kids has recently expressed an interest in studying medicine at uni, so I've been trying to bring myself up to speed with the good and the bad of it...

[Elderly]

K77 CTR said:

I haven't watched this yet but have had the pleasure of meeting Henry Marsh, he's an amazing surgeon and an enchanting speaker.

I wonder if you’ll get anything further from the programme?

I’ve read his books which were excellent reads and have a good friend who was a colleague of his at the Middlesex hospital in the early days who has told me a bit about him ….. I got nothing further out of the programme.

Regarding the arrogance of surgeons; I’ve know many surgeons socially and the only extremely arrogant one
was a brain surgeon, and not a very good one.

The “Ask me Anything” surgeon on PH: is he still around?
I asked him where he did his elective - he didn’t answer………