Overview

A doctor removes the normal, healthy side of a patient's brain instead of the malignant tumor. A man whose leg is scheduled for amputation wakes up to find his healthy leg removed. These recent examples are part of a history of medical disasters and embarrassments as old as the profession itself. In Medical Blunders, Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott have written the definitive account of medical mishap in modern and not-so- modern times. Youngson and Schott cover the gamut of medical accidents, from famous quacks to curious forms of sexual healing, from blunders with the brain to drugs worse than the diseases they are intended to treat. In Medical Blunders, we find shamefully dangerous doctors, human guinea pigs, masturbation treated as a disease requiring treatment, and the legendary surgeon who was himself a craven morphine addict. The resulting picture is one which depicts medical mistakes that are incredible, misguided, arrogant, cruel, or stupendously wrong-headed. Exploring the line between the comical and the tragic, the honest mistake and the intentional crime, Medical Blunders illustrates once and for all that doctors are subject to the same political, social, historical, and personal pressures as the rest of humanity.

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9780814796894

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Reviews

(<p> In a unique anthology of medical bungles, Youngson and Schott, a physician -and-journalist team, present hundreds of cases that arouse concern over the good intention of clinical practitioners and researchers. )-( Lancet ), ()

"""Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott, a doctor and a journalist, have written an erudite and elegant dismissal of the duff side of the medical profession."" -Times Literary Supplement ""In a unique anthology of medical bungles, Youngson and Schott, a physician -and-journalist team, present hundreds of cases that arouse concern over the good intention of clinical practitioners and researchers."" -Lancet"

<p> Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott, a doctor and a journalist, have written an erudite and elegant dismissal of the duff side of the medical profession.

""Robert M. Youngson and Ian Schott, a doctor and a journalist, have written an erudite and elegant dismissal of the duff side of the medical profession."" -Times Literary Supplement ""In a unique anthology of medical bungles, Youngson and Schott, a physician -and-journalist team, present hundreds of cases that arouse concern over the good intention of clinical practitioners and researchers."" -Lancet

Author Information

Robert M. Youngson is a doctor and medical writer whose books include The Guinness Encyclopedia of the Human Being. Ian Schott is a writer, journalist, and obituarist. They both reside in England.

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