There were itinerant stonecutters-lithologists-who could cut either into the bladder or the perineum and get the stone out, but because they cleaned the knife by wiping it on their blood-stiffened surgical aprons, patients usually died of infection the next day. There is a line in the Hippocratic Oath that says: ‘I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest.’ It stems from the days when bladder stones were epidemic, a cause of great suffering, probably from bad water and who knows what else. In the book’s epilogue, Verghese, a surgeon and professor at Stanford Medical School, closes with the following explanation, “Medicine is a demanding mistress, yet she is faithful, generous, and true every year, at commencement, I renew my vows with her: I swear by Apollo and Hygieia and Panaceia to be true to her, for she is the source of all…I shall not cut for stone.” The title of Abraham Verghese’s first novel, Cutting for Stone, is intriguing, perhaps unrewardingly so. His well-received debut novel 'Cutting for Stone' tracks the narrator's journey from Ethiopia to America. Physician and author Abraham Verghese was born and raised in Addis Ababa to Indian parents.
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