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Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years
by
Michael J. Collins (Goodreads Author)
When Michael Collins decides to become a surgeon, he is totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success, in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents Collins feels inadequate...more
ebook, 320 pages
Published
April 1st 2007
by St. Martin's Press
(first published February 1st 2005)
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I thought it was really cool when I read the description of Collins on the back flap and saw that he has 12 children. He’s Irish Catholic, I guess, but he doesn’t come across as the least bit religious in the book. I think he and his wife don’t have so many children for religious reasons so much as because they just love having children. In any case, this description of the four years of orthopedic surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic is awesome. It’s very engrossing, with lots of medical detail...more
This was one of my favorite “doctor” books. Dr. Collins is an amazing author who brings truth and humor to his life as a resident. In stark contrast to “Intern Blues”, Dr. Collins isn’t caught whining; rather, he understands his job is tough, the hours long, and the decisions difficult with a sense of journey. That is, he engrosses himself in his life and enjoys the ride.
You really can feel his emotions when he succeeds, fails, is uncertain. You grow in compassion and respect for his supportive...more
You really can feel his emotions when he succeeds, fails, is uncertain. You grow in compassion and respect for his supportive...more
"I was a counterfeit, an impostor who had infiltrated this society of brilliant surgeons. [...] I would have thrown myself on the floor and asked them to shoot me and put me out of my misery." When I read these lines, I knew that this book was the real thing.
There's something in Collins' self-deprecation and love of his work that reminds me of James Herriot, but the humour of "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" is starker, though no less funny. The laughter is there, of course, but it sounds more like a m...more
There's something in Collins' self-deprecation and love of his work that reminds me of James Herriot, but the humour of "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" is starker, though no less funny. The laughter is there, of course, but it sounds more like a m...more
This book was even better than expected, interlaced with dark humor. I turned the tv off and read the book all evening! A very likable group of would-be surgeons, indeed!
1 like
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Dr. Collins is kind of like the Augusten Bourroughs/David Sedaris of medical writing. Some of the stories are funny (the patient with a dildo stuck up his butt), others are heartbreaking (an 18 year old girl with cancer of the ilium). The book is the first medical writing I've read that is more than just clinical stories but also gives insight into what the life of a resident is like -- the long hours, the low pay, the lapses in confidence -- all the sacrafices that must be made for training to...more
Hot Nights, Cold Steel is the autobiography of an orthopedic residency. Dr. Michael J. Collins came to the prestigious Mayo Clinic out of medical school feeling unprepared, but through 2 years as a junior resident and 2 as a senior (and then chief) resident, he found the experience worthwhile. Collins manages to pepper the story with salty humor despite the hard times, including horrific traumas, extreme sleep deprivation, and moonlighting at a rural ER to make ends meet for his growing family....more
Told through flashback, Michael J. Collins’ Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a sleep-deprived romp through four years of orthopedic residency at the Mayo Clinic. Although published more than 20 years after his days as a resident, readers will feel as though they are along for the ride with Collins and his colleagues. He walks us through his thought process as he confronts his first views of surgery and many sleepless nights moonlighting in a rural emergency room. While the book doesn’t give great insig...more
In my continuing obsession with medical student/doctor memoirs (begun last spring with Atul Gawande's wonderful books) comes this memoir about a doctor who used to be a construction worker. Collins only started medical school in his mid-twenties, and this book is primarily a story about his four years of residency as an aspiring orthopedic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.
This book was different from Gawandes' (and probably most other medically-themed memoirs) primarily in its tone, because Collins is...more
This book was different from Gawandes' (and probably most other medically-themed memoirs) primarily in its tone, because Collins is...more
This is a book about a resdient at the Mayo Clinic in Orthopedics. It's about his struggles and his own doubts about why he was picked to get a residency in one of the top programs in the nation! So far, this book is proving incredibly interesting - although I must admit his residency experience appears to have been a LOT more demanding than mine!
Despite the sleepless nights and such - there is something to be said for the insanity and friendships that bloom in such a time! Some of my best frien...more
Despite the sleepless nights and such - there is something to be said for the insanity and friendships that bloom in such a time! Some of my best frien...more
Jun 15, 2008
Collin Smith
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
pre-med students, everyone
Shelves:
medicine,
non-fiction
A very entertaining book about a man's surgical residency. It's informative if you're interested in medicine yourself (as is the case for me), but deserves to be read on the merit of it's entertainment value alone. At times hilarious, touching, and tragic. It's a rather short memoir, but you find yourself really caring about the author and his story by the end. Read it all in a few days and didn't want it to end.
Great story of a 4 year orthopedic surgery residency from Dr. Michael Collins. He completed his residency at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester. About 1/3 of the way through, I realized that I had already read this book, but I also remembered how much I had enjoyed it so I plodded on. He goes from the very real position of feeling like he knows nothing when he starts his residency to confidence and the responsiblity of his own service as chief resident at the end of 4 years. Deeply religio...more
I absolutely loved this book. Collins' writing style is witty, funny, and engaging. The stories he tells are by turns humorous, dramatic, gruesome and horrifying -- made all the more so by the fact that they're true. Although it's a memoir, it reads like a novel. I came to care deeply for all the characters (though I hate to call them that), including Collins' family, his colleagues, and his patients. I can't remember the last time I was so tense while reading; the book has the makings of a grea...more
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Maybe it is because my husband is going to be a surgeon and we are on the cusp of residency years, but I thought this book was really interesting. It made me think a lot about the role, responsibility and pressures surgeons face. It also made me weary of having a missing husband for the next five years!
"We had been training for years to become surgeons. We had excelled in college. We had excelled in medical school. Our lives has been one success after another until we woke up one day, and there...more
"We had been training for years to become surgeons. We had excelled in college. We had excelled in medical school. Our lives has been one success after another until we woke up one day, and there...more
This is the second memoir of a doctor's residency that I've read lately, and I found it just as engaging as the first, although in many ways it is quite different. Collins was a orthopedic surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. This memoir tells of his four years there. He talks about his relationship with other residents, his relationship with other hospital staff, the patient cases he dealt with, and his personal life. One thing that I found eye-opening was the very low pay the resi...more
I like the Gawande books a little more, but I enjoyed this one. The four-year transformation from medical student to surgeon is an interesting process: Technically -- what don't I know that I need to know to be a great surgeon? Practically -- how do I develop the skills to physically perform surgery? -- Emotionally -- how do I deal with life-shattering events and decisions on a daily basis and in a decently healthy manner? And to all of this, throw a home life and sleeplessness into the mix, jus...more
Dr. Collins could easily launch a second career as an author. This book is the story of his four years as an orthopedic resident at the Mayo Clinic--the final four years before he was officially labled "MD." At the same time, he and his wife were having their first four children! (They topped out at twelve, according to his biography on the book jacket.) The book left me wishing he would write a book covering the rest of his life and career since then. This book made me laugh out loud, cry, and...more
Incredible,inspiring and heart-breaking. I laughed and I cried.
Continues the story of the medical education of former construction worker Michael Collins, beginning with his arrival at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to start his orthopedic surgery residency. Underpaid and overworked, driving junker cars and having to moonlight to bring in enough money to keep his wife and ultimately 4 children under age 4 in food and clothing, he functions sleep deprived and for the most part in constant fear. This is a record of the old style residency and how it...more
I used to read a lot of doctor-type books, especially intern stories, and this on was in that genre. The author, an orthopedic surgeon, tells of his four years of residency at the Mayo Clinic. I don't know how those guys do it, with the small amount of sleep and the large amount of responsibility, but Dr. Collins story was a good one. I think I got started reading these types of books when I read Intern, by Dr. X, way back when, and I'm still reading them. But I also read books about former nuns...more
Apr 10, 2012
Jess
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
science-and-medicine
One of the reasons we (I'm assuming here) read doctor memoirs is to see the humanity that we miss in a world most of us can only understand a tiny part of. Dr. Collins seems to forget that. The stories are interesting, the patients are memorable, and his work ethic is admirable. But I never felt like I was reading about a person. He was a baby-making, middle-of-the-night, mistake-eschewing machine. Dr. Collins is probably an amazing doctor but, as an author, I wonder if he might have left his hu...more
(2.5) Certainly enlightening on the rigors of becoming a surgeon, but the intellectual landscape that the author delineates is hardly profound or novel. Too often the book veers into his friends and wife's snappy banter(at one point several pages are reprinted from the opening) and such banal insights about human mortality and that doctors are not gods. Or perhaps I've just seen enough St. Elsewhere, MASH, ER, Grey's Anatomy's that this ground has been plowed over once too often.
my brother recommended this book, as a look into what his life will be like for the next few years (he began his residency in orthopedic surgery this month). i really enjoyed the book. i appreciated Dr. Collins stories and explanation of the life lessons he learned through the patients he treated and experiences he had. i think my favorite is chapter 32, the end of his 3rd year...he was treating a little boy who had broken his arm, and a cast tech helped remind him of probably one of the most va...more
I thought this was a good, fairly easy read. One thing that I liked that made it a bit different from the other doctoral accounts I have read, is that Collins added quite a bit of humor to his writing. If there is a downside, it is that he uses some medical jargon, that can be hard to follow if you are unfamiliar with it. Also some of his stories are a bit similar. However, that is somewhat counteracted by the fact that his chapters are pretty short.
The book did a great job at surfacing the not-too-glamorous side of being a resident in orthopedics surgery: the sleep deprivation, crazily precarious financial circumstances, emotional turmoils, and so on. I don't want to sound like a smart Alec, but having experienced all these vicariously, I feel like I haven't been blinded by the seemingly glossy surface of being a doctor all along. I have long known that doctors are not invincible and success is sometimes just a sheer stroke of luck. Then t...more
An excellent memoir of a surgeon going through his 4-year residency here at Mayo. It's interesting to see how he learns and grows over the 4 years. His wife has 4 kids during the residency too. It reminds me of several of the sisters at church who have husbands doing the residency thing. An fun, quick and interesting read and I'm not even a doctor. I could relate to his stories and found it quite enjoyable.
I work with orthopedic surgeons..this book gave me insight into what they went through in their training. I have a much better appreciation for the sheer determination these individuals have exibited in getting to the level they are at. Michael J. Collins illustrates the struggles and the triumphs he went through in his training, poor as a church mouse and all the while with a growing family.
The book is better than the title. The quality of the title is tantamount to romance novels'. Good book for anyone considering surgery as a career. I feel like the author was a little over-dramatic at times, but I ate up the stories he told about his residency, and how it affected his family life. He had 4 kids during residency and since I already have 3, it was refreshing to hear it is possible. But it didn't sound like a picnic by any means.
This is such a great book. Like reading the t.v. show E.R. but this book has a lot more heart in it. The author and his wife are married while he is in residency. They are catholic and end up having a total of 12 kids. Wow. Such a heartfelt look at what a young man went through to become a doctor. Very entertaining reading and feel-good writing.
Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a look into the life of a surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Despite it's rather dire title, the book is a fun read with many laugh-out-loud stories. Written as a series of vignettes, the book is reminiscent of the kind of stories one might encounter in a James Herriott book (only with a PG-13 rating). This book is a fun, quick read.
I read this awhile back when I was going to school getting into the healthcare industry (Rad Tech). I wanted to get a taste and feel for working in a hospital. Book was kind of interesting, but the MD who wrote this book should keep his day job. Very easy read, simple enough for young teens to read.
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Mike Collins was born on the West Side of Chicago. His first book, HOT LIGHTS, COLD STEEL, describes his years as a surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic. His second book, BLUE COLLAR, BLUE SCRUBS, due to be released on May 26, 2009, turns back the clock to his years as a construction worker dreaming of becoming a doctor.
Visit Mike at:
www.michaeljcollinsmd.com
More about Michael J. Collins...
Visit Mike at:
www.michaeljcollinsmd.com
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“At times it felt like I was killing myself. And yet the only thing I could recall at that moment was how much fun it had been, and how wonderful it was to do this for a living.”
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4 people liked it
“Why do we always think our pain will be less if we can make others suffer more?”
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2 people liked it
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Mar 25, 2009 10:27pm