Doctors are infamous for their unreadable writing; Richard Selzer is not one of those doctors. A talented surgeon, Selzer has garnered critical acclaim for his captivating operating room tales, and rightfully so. A perfect exhibition of this is The Knife, a detailed illustration of a surgery. What may seem like an uninteresting event is made mesmerizing by Selzer’s magnificent account of the human body and the meticulousness that goes into repairing it. The rhetorical appeals, tone, and figurative language that Selzer uses throughout The Knife provide the reader with a vivid description of the sacred process of surgery.
In this article the authors relied on logos, by using numerus studies and facts, to demonstrate that Dr. Tyson memory failed. For example, the study made by Dr. Roediger and Dr. DeSoto about how people could remember words from a list, and how accurate they were on their memories. In this study they demonstrated that people were more confident about false and less accurate memories. Also the experiment made by Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett, call the “telephone” game, in which no matter clearly the message is, at the end the message will change. Using this logos appeal, the readers have a strong source on the argument made on the article.
Andrew Davidson uses several rhetorical strategies throughout “Following my accident...,” an excerpt from The Gargoyle. These add great amounts of emotional depth, AND SOMETHING ELSE. In the opening paragraph, Davidson describes the doctor’s incisions to release a “secret inner being”(line 4), a “thing of engorged flesh”(6). This introduces a divide between the narrator, and his body; establishing it as it’s own entity.
In the article “Failure to Rescue” the author Atul Gawande argues that failure gives an individual a chance to rescue themselves from defeat and prosper. If a person fails they should not dwell on the past and become crippled by failure, they should continue to take risks because in order to see advancements, in anything, they must first take a chance. Gawande’s first altercation is failure is inevitable if we don’t take risks. He talks about eighty- seven year old Mrs. C who had neck surgery. The procedure went well, but resulted in an ulcer that ruptured in her chest, she had an eighty-per-cent fatality rate, but she defied the odds and survived to left the hospital in a week.
In the article, “Slow Ideas”, Atul Gawande utilizes personal and historical anecdotes to further strengthen his claims. He often transitions between stories by asking the audience a critical question and then providing his stance on this issue. This strategy allows for a paper that flows well, and also maintains a high level of interest from the audience. This is because the questions often cause the reader to stop and think about their own take on the situation. After posing a question, Gawande then transitions into explaining the problem through the use of a narrative example.
This passage intrigues me because it explains a little how a body is prepared for a funeral. As a student looking into the health community, this intrigues me because of how it is seen as similarity to surgery. “His equipment, consisting of scalpels, scissors, augers, forceps, clamps, needles, pumps, tubes, bowls and basins (...)” (2) The informative tone that Mitford possesses for this essay sounds like what a college professor would lecture, it can get a bit boring (but then again, that could be because of my generation 's attention span and my attention span) but overall informing and she makes it seem as though you need notes on these (then again, most informative writings seem that way). She also uses descriptive language to hook the readers with colorful words (not bad words, just descriptive) and her use of them boosts the readings likeability, in my opinion.
It was thought that surgeons during this time were ruthless and heartless, but that wasn’t the case. According to Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the medical director of the Army of Potomac “ The surgery of these battle-fields has been pronounced butchery. Gross misrepresentations of the conduct of medical officers have been made...some medical officers lost their lives in their devotion to duty in the battle of Antietam, and others sickened from excessive labor which they conscientiously and skillfully performed. If any objection could be urged against the surgery of those fields, it would be the efforts on the part of surgeons to practice "conservative surgery" to too great an extent”. Surgeons in the battlefield were some of the strongest people out there, according to ehistory's essay on
Reality is often deceiving, and tragic situations can happen unpredictably to people in our surrounding. In Lorrie Moore’s short story “People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk”, the Mother and the Husband attempt to cope with the situation after they learnt that their Baby has a Wilms’ tumor on the kidney. Through this story, the author suggests that it is difficult for family members to deal with the illness of a loved one. The story’s narration plays an essential role in conveying the general mood of the story.
In each of the three essays, “The Pain Scale” by Eula Biss, “Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain” by Floyd Skloot and “Notes from a Difficult Case” by Ruthann Robson, each of the main characters in the stories deals with a severe medical condition and their experiences that coincide with their disease. Each of these essays all have certain characteristics that are similar, but are still very different in their own way. In “The Pain Scale”, Biss discusses the idea of pain along with the concept of zero. She talks about her experiences of going to the doctor’s office and being asked her level of pain.
A lack of government regulation, formally educated doctors and overall specialized knowledge contributed to insufficient medical care (Breslaw). Common treatments were aggressive and designed to achieve balance within one’s body. Popular techniques encouraged physicians to induce bleeding, vomiting, and other conditions in hopes of curing a patient (Jones). Although most practices were horrific by today’s standards, progress was slowly taking place in the medical field. On October 16, 1846, Harvard Professor of Surgery John Collin prompted a patient to inhale an anesthetic substance prior to an operation.
The farther life goes on, there is an increase in life threatening sicknesses, and its affecting the growth of the population. There are many pathways one could chose that are joyful and exciting this one on the other hand is gloomy sometimes even depressing. However, it pushes you beyond a person’s limits and may have the opportunity to impact people. In order to succeed in a career one must check the educational requirements or know what’s needed to pursue that career choice.
“Auscultation” a short essay by Steven Church is composed of four chambers much like the four chambers of the heart or chambers found underground. The essay begins with Chamber 1 which was about how miners got stuck inside a caved in mine and was never able to saved after several rescue failures. This chamber was followed by Chamber 2 in which the author asks the reader to recall the last time a stethoscope was on your skin. Then, in Chamber 3, the author informs the reader about the stethoscope, the importance of the stethoscope, and the experience of hearing his child for the first time. This essay concludes with Chamber 4 which is an echo of Chamber 1 in which another story of miners being trapped is told but with the miners being saved
When my dad completed his first college physics exam, he felt a rush of relief as he confidently placed his exam on the teacher’s desk. He celebrated his success by embarking on a weekend camping adventure with his friends. Returning to class the following Monday, his mouth dropped open in shock when he spotted a large letter “D” on his exam. “This can’t be right!” he exclaimed to himself as he frantically reviewed his answers.
The major theory of ethics that this argument relies on is Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism (U) is characterised by carrying out an action to produce the greatest amount of good (or “utility”) for the greatest number of people, regardless of whether or not the action is right or wrong. The word “good” is defined as a sense of satisfaction, gain or welfare – according to the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. Alternatively, the theory focuses on reducing the total amount of harm imposed on the greatest number of people. Viewing this theory from either perspective will generate an overall positive outcome.
Another strength is the case provided help for further research like Corsi (1970) and the case R.B (1986) by Zola Morgan et al. And also this case gives us a detailed picture as it was studied for over 50 years. This is one very rare and strange case. However there are certain limitations, they are this case cannot be generalized as the findings are just based on Henry. Another limitation is only little information is known about Henry therefore comparison about before and after surgery cannot be made.
