A Fullness of Uncertain Significance - by Bruce H Campbell

About the Book

Through these well-crafted, poignant, sometimes funny, and always insightful stories, Dr. Bruce H. Campbell shares the lessons that shaped his journey into becoming a surgeon.

Book Synopsis

When Dr. Bruce H. Campbell first set foot in a hospital as a seventeen-year-old nursing assistant, he observed the best and the worst of doctors, hospitals, and the entire health care team. These lessons returned to him and shaped his own journey as he became a surgeon. Through these well-crafted, poignant, sometimes funny, and always insightful stories, he shares what his patients and their families shared, having never forgotten what it felt like to be a beginner.

Review Quotes

Dr. Bruce Campbell illuminates how much medicine is truly the sacred act of holding vigil with and for our patients.

-Rana Awdish, MD, FCCP, FACP, author of In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope

Dr. Bruce Campbell sets a new milestone for doctor-writers. . . . Not a set of doctorly instructions (though instruct it does), A Fullness of Uncertain Significance: Stories of Surgery, Clarity, & Grace lays open the profound mysteries and truths and awe about this life of ours. These stories will change lives.

-Rita Charon, MD, PhD; Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of Medicine; Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics; Executive Director of Columbia Narrative Medicine, Columbia University

The words "clarity" and "grace" take on heightened significance in this honest yet lyrical set of essays by Bruce Campbell. . . . It is impossible to read this book and not be changed by the experience.

-Carol Scott-Conner, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

With elegant and engaging prose, Campbell beautifully expresses the honor it is to be a physician.

-William Lydiatt, MD, Chief Medical Officer Nebraska Methodist and Women's Hospitals and Professor of Surgery, Creighton University

In a warm, compassionate, and honest voice, Dr. Campbell delivers to the reader not just insights on medicine, but truths about humanity.

-K. Jane Lee, MD, author of Catastrophic Rupture: A Memoir of Healing

Eminently readable and richly satisfying.

-Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

Campbell's memoir of stories is sure to become a rite of passage for future doctors and patients alike.

-Olivia Davies, MD, poet, writer, and dermatology resident at Massachusetts General Hospital

With compassion, humility, and shimmering prose, Dr. Campbell shares the joys, pains, and somber responsibility of being a surgeon.

-Gayle Woodson, MD, surgeon, educator, and award-winning author of After Kilimanjaro and Leaving La Jolla

Bruce Campbell takes the excellence of his medical trade and weaves the challenges, exhilarations, and tough decisions of surgery into beautiful prose.

-Peter W. Marty, editor/publisher of The Christian Century

Dr. Campbell's reflections will resonate with those who treat cancer patients as well as those who have had cancer themselves.

-Julie Ann Freischlag, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), DFSVS, CEO Wake Forest Baptist Health, CAO Atrium Health, Dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine, and 2021-2022 President of the American College of Surgeons

From Campbell's first invitation into the "inner sanctorum" of the O.R., through tender interactions with patients, to his projections about the profession when he is long gone, this smart, sensitive surgeon courageously goes to the "hard places" as well as sharing those special moments that make it all worthwhile.

-Kim Suhr, MFA, author of Nothing to Lose and Director of Red Oak Writing

Dr. Campbell lets us in on his unique vantage point on humanity, and does so with such humility and grace that his own humanity is never in question.

-Martina Scholtens, MD, author of Your Heart is the Size of Your Fist

This isn't merely a book about one man's life as a surgeon. It is a book about the need for understanding and compassion when dealing with others, especially those in distress.

-Myles Hopper, PhD, JD, author of My Father's Shadow