开颅 – All That Moves Us by Jay Wellons

神经外科的世界，是颅骨、沟回、灰白质、额颞叶脊髓；是中风、脑疝、积水、枪伤、胶质瘤、动静脉畸形；是显微刀剪、双极、剥离子、吸引器、手锯、电钻、骨水泥；是“打开硬脑膜的那一刻，浓液喷涌而出”……是各种脑手术的困难和风险：脑区和病灶间没有明显边界，要想各种办法保证切除正好；是显微尺度下连续数小时稳健无颤抖的雕琢；心可以换，脑子却不可以；为追求更好的预后，还要给胎儿做剖宫的脊髓手术；是争分夺秒地避免患者瘫痪甚至死亡，有时还要用黑鹰直升机运送转院；饶是如此，成功率也并不总是很高。

本书即是一位小儿神经外科医生的自传式写作。他继承了战斗飞行员父亲的进取和沉着，执业20余年，从菜鸟成长为顶尖骨干；也被各种生死悲欢打动，在收到15年前患者的婚礼喜帖时，他觉得一切都很值得；却不免自己也生了腿部神经瘤，甚至传奇的父亲也因渐冻症早早撒手人寰。透过本书，作者分享了职业生涯中的重要手术案例，吐露了医生的感悟和心绪，用细腻的笔触和洞察，在展现外科医生的坚毅果敢之余，更有这个群体身上难得一见的柔情。

Tumors, injuries, ruptured vascular malformations—there is almost no such thing as a non-urgent brain surgery when it comes to kids. For a pediatric neurosurgeon working in the medical minefield of the brain—in which a single millimeter in every direction governs something that makes us essentially human—every day presents the challenge, and the opportunity, to give a new lease on life to a child for whom nothing is yet fully determined and all possibilities still exist.

In All That Moves Us, Dr. Jay Wellons pulls back the curtain to reveal the profoundly moving triumphs, haunting complications, and harrowing close calls that characterize the life of a pediatric neurosurgeon, bringing the high-stakes drama of the operating room to life with astonishing candor and honest compassion. Reflecting on lessons learned over twenty-five years and thousands of operations completed on some of the most vulnerable and precious among us, Wellons recounts in gripping detail the moments that have shaped him as a doctor, as a parent, and as the only hope for countless patients whose young lives are in his hands.

Wellons shares scenes of his early days as the son of a military pilot, the years of grueling surgical training, and true stories of what it’s like to treat the brave children he meets on the threshold between life and death. From the little boy who arrived at the hospital near death from a gunshot wound to the head, to the eight-year-old whose shredded nerves were repaired using suture as fine as human hair, to the brave mother-to-be undergoing fetal spinal cord surgery, All That Moves Us is an unforgettable portrait of the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern children’s hospital—and a meditation on the marvel of life as seen from under the white-hot lights of the operating room.