Dancing in the Operating Room: Life and Love in the Trauma Unit

Would you believe that an Archbishop’s blessing could spell the difference between life and death? Or that a 150-year-old artillery shell could still deal death and destruction to those around it? This book takes readers on a journey through a place that most people will only see on one of the worst days of their life. It’s a place where surgeons have brought people back from edge of death. Where they have talked to a woman, looked into her eyes as she asked for help, and watched the spark of life vanish from those eyes Dancing in the Operating Room is a memoir, a collection of stories and essays about life, love, and faith in the world of trauma surgery. Some of the stories, like those above, are patient stories; some are uplifting, like the ex-con who steps up to save his sister from making the same mistakes that he did, or the 17 year old girl who fought through sixteen operations to save her leg, but lost in the end, only to find a renewed faith in her family and church. Some are observations of a current problem or a difficult phase of treatment or training. Some are downright depressing and talk about the personal cost of doing high-risk/low-reward surgery. Written by a trauma surgeon with twenty-five years of experience in the high intensity world of acute care surgery, Dancing in the Operating Room is a series of short essays ranging in length from 250 to 2400 words, each written to illustrate a particular experience, a patient story, or to give an insight into the thought process of a surgeon. The situations range from the mundane, to the humorous, to the deadly serious. Only one thing is certain: every trauma shift is a new adventure.

Bruce Davis is a Mesa AZ based general and trauma surgeon. He finished medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago way back in the 1970's and did his surgical residency at Bethesda Naval Hospital. After 14 years on active duty that included overseas duty with the Seabees, time on large grey boats and a tour with the Marines during the First Gulf War, he went into private practice near Phoenix. He is part of that dying breed of dinosaurs, the solo general surgeon. He also is a writer of science fiction novels. His works include the YA novel Queen Mab Courtesy, published by CWG press (and recently reissued by AKW Books as the e-book Blanktown). Also published through AKW Books are his military science fiction novel That Which Is Human, and the Profit Logbook series, including Glowgems For Profit, and Thieves Profit.