The Barbershop Quartet

Download or read book The Barbershop Quartet written by Colin Froman and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author grew up in South Africa. His book describes a life style of education both in Johannesburg and then in Oxford in the mid-20th Century. A medical career in physiology, general surgery and neurosurgery led to encounters with patients, medical colleagues and tort lawyers whose personal stories, talents and idiosyncrasies colour the book. These histories are painted against the background of the trials and tribulations of the practice of medicine in South Africa in the era when Verwoerd and his successors strode the stage. Interspersed throughout are excerpts from the life stories and scientific contributions of researchers in the fields of surgical physiology, general and spinal surgery. The dramatic progress of neuroadiology and aspects of medicine and surgery across the century form a backdrop to the catalogue of life in the "Black" hospitals of Johannesburg. The problems of medical ethics of survival from womb to tomb, and the conflicts that arise from cultures and legal constraints against the practice of euthanasia, are always in play. Right to life issues contrast with a death wish of some personalities in a morbid field of medicine and add to the drama of life and death played out in the story. This volume will appeal to doctors, lawyers, patients, road crash victims, and anybody with an interest in the wide fields of medical and social history of the 20th Century.