Dr. Michael J. Collins memoir of his four-year surgical residency at the prestigious Mayo Clinic traces his rise from an eager, but clueless first-year resident to accomplished Chief Resident. Along the way, he faces the reality of suffering and death as he makes decisions that change peoples lives forever. Faced with a boy whose leg is mangled by a tractor, Dr. Collins must decide whether to risk the boys life to save his leg or amputate immediately. A woman diagnosed with bone cancer injures her hip. Should they go through the painful operation of total hip replacement even though she has only months to live? This is a gripping memoir, at times devastating, at others triumphant, but always compulsively readable.