The General Surgeon: Recollections from Four Continents

Schein, Moshe

• Publisher: tfm Publishing Ltd
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781913755683
• Subtopic: Medicine Biographies

"Moshe Schein's life as a surgeon on four continents and his skills as a storyteller make for compelling reading." Abraham Verghese, Author of Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water This is a story of a 50-year-long surgical life, across four continents, and numerous hospitals — academic, community, and rural — in a few countries. Unlike the typical memoirs of surgeons, glorifying their accomplishments and paying tribute to our noble profession, this memoir is different: it's not written by a surgical 'giant' or a famous scientific innovator; it doesn't tell the story of a surgical Paganini but rather of a surgical workhorse. It portrays a surgical career in the trenches, as it is, in stark colors, warts and all — topics that others prefer not to write or speak about — complications, malpractice, medical politics, and intrigue. Although 'surgical' is its claim to fame, this memoir is aimed not only at surgeons or medical practitioners. Whenever possible, the author portrays events and persons against a background and perspective of the various times and places. The General Surgeon pays tribute to the author's brothers in the trenches — the humble, run-of-the-mill general surgeons worldwide.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Prologue
• One: Poland
• Two: Youth
• Three: Infantry
• Four: Siena, Tuscany
• Five: The German affair
• Six: Modena — the first examination
• Seven: The enchanted summer
• Eight: The Yom Kippur War
• Nine: My father
• Ten: The medical school in Jerusalem
• Eleven: Internship in Jerusalem
• Twelve: The wedding
• Thirteen: Going to Africa
• Fourteen: Early days in Johannesburg
• Fifteen: Senior House Officer
• Sixteen: See one, do one, teach one
• Seventeen: The ‘colored’ hospital
• Eighteen: Gown versus town
• Nineteen: The man with the scar
• Twenty: The virus of academia
• Twenty-one: Senior registrar
• Twenty-two: Consultant
• Twenty-three: A try in Bern
• Twenty-four: A fellowship in Leeds
• Twenty-five: My own unit and goodbye South Africa
• Twenty-six: Going back to Haifa
• Twenty-seven: The return to the Holy Land
• Twenty-eight: The Gulf War
• Twenty-nine: Rambam Medical Center
• Thirty: Life in Haifa
• Thirty-one: Schein the ‘racist’
• Thirty-two: The story of my mother and the good German
• Thirty-three: We bestow tenure only on the very best doctors
• Thirty-four: The revenge
• Thirty-five: In the terrorists’ camp
• Thirty-six: Farewell to Haifa
• Thirty-seven: The taxi driver
• Thirty-eight: The back door to the USA
• Thirty-nine: New immigrants in America
• Forty: Fellowship in Milwaukee
• Forty-one: The rabbi and the surgical god
• Forty-two: From Milwaukee to New York
• Forty-three: The New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn
• Forty-four: Brooklyn — the beginning of the end
• Forty-five: Brooklyn — the going gets tough
• Forty-six: Wheels of justice
• Forty-seven: The slums of the Bronx
• Forty-eight: So long New York
• Forty-nine: My sister, Sylvia
• Fifty: On the western shore of the Mississippi
• Fifty-one: The making of a rural surgeon
• Fifty-two: It could have been a good year
• Fifty-three: Indira of Keokuk
• Fifty-four: The lynching
• Fifty-five: Adios Iowa
• Fifty-six: Coming to northern Wisconsin
• Fifty-seven: Ladysmith, Wisconsin — the early years
• Fifty-eight: The era of Princess Charlotte
• Fifty-nine: The closing years
• Epilogue: Taking off the gloves
• Acknowledgements