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A surgeon's book of hope
Inspirational case histories of patients who survived despite all odds underlie a surgeon's wonder at the human body's amazing resiliance and miraculous progress in medical research and lifesaving devices
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 23, 2026
Very interesting even though it was written in 1980. There are 22 chapters and generally one case per chapter. It is written for the lay person and easily read. The author's point is that hope is God's greatest gift, and he made that point very well.
February 16, 2015
As the title suggests, this is a compilation of stories about Dr. Nolen's memorable patients who defied the odds. Nolen was the only surgeon in his small Minnesota town, so he saw patients for routine things like gallbladders and hernias to one case where he made a house call to find the patient had a 7 inch aneurysm ready to burst. A humble man who knew everyone in town at least casually, Nolen wasn't afraid to admit when a case was beyond his surgical skills, such as that aneurysm, but he often saw the patients on follow-up and also knew the doctors to whom he referred his patients. Written in the early 1980s, this book came before HIPAA regulations, and I imagine that except when explicitly stated otherwise, Nolen used the real names and details of the cases.
The book was a bit dated in terms of diagnostic options and treatment plans, but it doesn't make the stories any less remarkable, and perhaps made them more remarkable, that the patients survived despite not having the same advances that have been gained in the 35 years since the book. For example, cardiac bypass was a relatively new surgery, and other means of treating clogged arteries were tried and ultimately determined to be non-beneficial. All of his patients, most of whom were elderly, were still alive as of the writing of the book, despite diagnoses of cancer, cardiac disease, etc. and most were doing quite well, the exception being the woman he uses for comparison's sake in the chapter about brain injuries, who hadn't awakened from her coma and likely would not, though the man in that chapter, whose injury seemed worse, did recover almost completely.
In 2 specific instances, one I am certain of and one I am reasonably certain of, the treatments prescribed to the patients back then seemed right, but would never be part of the plan now. In the reasonably certain case, Nolen describes a patient he saw who was found to have prostate cancer, and the recommended treatment was not only to operate on the prostate, but also remove the testicles, not to curb the spread of cancer, but to reduce the amount of testosterone in the body. I don't know much about prostate cancer, being a young woman, but I've known of a lot of guys who have had prostate surgery and I don't think most of them would get it done if the doctor intended to neuter them at the same time. The treatment I am certain is not done anymore came in the chapter Nolen devoted to his patient who required a kidney transplant. In her case, she got her brother's kidney, an 'identical match' (on 4 markers. My lab currently tests for at least 18) and didn't require it, but Nolen said that it was common to give the intended recipients multiple blood transfusions pre-transplant to get their immune system accustomed to foreign antigens. Because what I do for a career is monitor patients' labwork, I've seen first hand the effects blood transfusions have on a patient's immune response, and it's not good. If the body already has developed antibody to a tissue type, when the kidney is put in, the body just makes more to attack it, completely the opposite of what Nolen and his colleagues believed in the book.
Overall, an enjoyable book. While it is obviously dated, even today, I think many of the survival stories would be remarkable. Certain parts just have to be taken with a grain of salt as trends change, and new advances have been made since it was written.
The book was a bit dated in terms of diagnostic options and treatment plans, but it doesn't make the stories any less remarkable, and perhaps made them more remarkable, that the patients survived despite not having the same advances that have been gained in the 35 years since the book. For example, cardiac bypass was a relatively new surgery, and other means of treating clogged arteries were tried and ultimately determined to be non-beneficial. All of his patients, most of whom were elderly, were still alive as of the writing of the book, despite diagnoses of cancer, cardiac disease, etc. and most were doing quite well, the exception being the woman he uses for comparison's sake in the chapter about brain injuries, who hadn't awakened from her coma and likely would not, though the man in that chapter, whose injury seemed worse, did recover almost completely.
In 2 specific instances, one I am certain of and one I am reasonably certain of, the treatments prescribed to the patients back then seemed right, but would never be part of the plan now. In the reasonably certain case, Nolen describes a patient he saw who was found to have prostate cancer, and the recommended treatment was not only to operate on the prostate, but also remove the testicles, not to curb the spread of cancer, but to reduce the amount of testosterone in the body. I don't know much about prostate cancer, being a young woman, but I've known of a lot of guys who have had prostate surgery and I don't think most of them would get it done if the doctor intended to neuter them at the same time. The treatment I am certain is not done anymore came in the chapter Nolen devoted to his patient who required a kidney transplant. In her case, she got her brother's kidney, an 'identical match' (on 4 markers. My lab currently tests for at least 18) and didn't require it, but Nolen said that it was common to give the intended recipients multiple blood transfusions pre-transplant to get their immune system accustomed to foreign antigens. Because what I do for a career is monitor patients' labwork, I've seen first hand the effects blood transfusions have on a patient's immune response, and it's not good. If the body already has developed antibody to a tissue type, when the kidney is put in, the body just makes more to attack it, completely the opposite of what Nolen and his colleagues believed in the book.
Overall, an enjoyable book. While it is obviously dated, even today, I think many of the survival stories would be remarkable. Certain parts just have to be taken with a grain of salt as trends change, and new advances have been made since it was written.
October 13, 2014
as it was published in 1980, this book is now "dated"; but the case studies were an interesting read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews