Brain surgery still vies with rocket science in our popular imagery about difficult occupations. It does not take a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to be a politician. Brain surgeons seem to be the triathletes and mountaineers of medicine. Retired writers can’t become brain surgeons. Retired brain surgeons often become writers.
Thomas Morley, retired head of neurosurgery at the former Toronto General Hospital (now part of the absurdly named University Health Network), has exchanged scalpel for pen to profile Canada’s first brain surgeon, Kenneth George McKenzie. A doctor’s son from southwestern Ontario, McKenzie learned the basic techniques of neurosurgery from the legendary Harvey Cushing in Boston in 1922–23. McKenzie returned to Toronto and operated on patients’ heads, with a reasonable amount of success, until his retirement in 1952.
What kind of medical superman went into brain surgery? Most Canadians believe that Wilder Penfield, founding...
Michael Bliss’s books in medical history include The Discovery of Insulin, Banting: A Biography, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery, and The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease.
Advertisement
Advertisement