Emergency Ward Surgery: No Man's Land Summary and Analysis

The term "rotation" refers to a two-month period during which a medical student is assigned to work within a specific specialty at the hospital. Konner began his first rotation with Galen surgery on his thirty-sixth birthday. Ironically he had no plans to become a surgeon, especially not via this most rigorous assignment that was usually done by third-year students. Surgeons were men, mostly, of action who thrived on stress, got little sleep and liked making life or death decisions. Konner was a married Harvard University professor when he began med school and now was assigned Emergency Ward Surgery to work daily and every other night. The surgeon in charge ordered Konner to discard his new leather medical bag he bought in Florence that was "useless."

John Williams took Konner on his...