The first time you have to deliver bad news to a family.  The ""routine"" surgery that was anything but.  That risk you took on the operating table that saved a coding patient.  Every practicing surgeon has stories like these.  
From med student to intern to practicing specialist, Real Life of a Surgeon traces the careers of these skilled professionals.  With the risky nature of surgery, so much can be at stake, and emotions often run high.  How do you tell a mother that her child didn't survive his surgery?  When do you go against conventional wisdom to save a life?  Because they see surgeons much more rarely than their usual doctors, people often perceive surgeons as remote figures, and tend to associate them with bad medical news.  This anthology features first-person narratives from the students and doctors who have devoted their careers to this path, and offers an unblinking look at daily life in the field.
 
Other books in the Kaplan Voices: Doctors series will focus on internal medicine, psychiatry, oncology, geriatrics, and pediatrics, the most prominent specialties today.