The_Invention_of_Surgery

Introduction

Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience

perilous, and decision difficult. The physician must not only be

prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the

patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.

—Hippocrates, Aphorisms, Section 1

The fact is that he whose purpose is to know anything better than

the multitude do must far surpass all others both as regards his

nature and his early training.

—Galen, On the Natural Faculties^1

As the junior resident on the hand surgery service, I spend more time
tending to the patients on the hospital floor and in the emergency room,
and less time in the operating room. This summer has been hectic, with
multiple “replants” (the reattachment of fingers after trauma suffered at
factories, lumber mills, and backyard fireworks mishaps). Patients get
airlifted or ambulanced to our trauma center from all over our region in
hopes of saving their hands.
Two days ago, a young Amish boy suffered the loss of three fingers in a
barnyard accident. Gabriel is five years old, but speaks no English—
typical for a child here in central Pennsylvania, growing up in a cloistered
community retaining the simplicity of a bygone era. In fact, almost no one
in his family can communicate well with us. I have treated some Amish
and Old Order Mennonite patients who speak modern English effortlessly,
but some sects of Amish barely break away from their “Low German”
dialect.