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Saving Sight: An Eye Surgeon's Look at Life Behind the Mask and the Heroes Who Changed the Way We See
In Saving Sight, Dr. Andrew Lam explains the intricacies of human sight and shines a light on the heroes who fought to save it, while also revealing the personal side of life as an eye surgeon - the stress and joy of a man who, on his best days, can turn darkness into light. Many remarkable life stories illuminate this autobiographical/biographical/historical work. Included are Louis Braille, Judah Folkman, Harold Ridley and many others who have enabled us to see in all kinds of unimaginable ways.
232 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2013
7 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Lam
4 books42 followersAndrew Lam, M.D. is the award-winning author of The Masters of Medicine, Saving Sight, Two Sons of China, and Repentance. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. He is a retinal surgeon with a history degree from Yale and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Dr. Lam's first book, Saving Sight (Irie Books 2013), about his work as an eye surgeon, was an Amazon bestseller. His first novel, Two Sons of China, (Bondfire Books 2014) won a Forewords Reviews Book of the Year award in 2014. His latest novel, Repentance (Tiny Fox Press 2019), is a Japanese American WWII family drama closely entwined with the history of the highly decorated Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Dr. Lam's first book, Saving Sight (Irie Books 2013), about his work as an eye surgeon, was an Amazon bestseller. His first novel, Two Sons of China, (Bondfire Books 2014) won a Forewords Reviews Book of the Year award in 2014. His latest novel, Repentance (Tiny Fox Press 2019), is a Japanese American WWII family drama closely entwined with the history of the highly decorated Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 21, 2013
Saving Sight is a phenomenal book on so many levels, easily the most interesting book I have read this year!
An unexpected page-turner, given the subject matter. It reads like a novel and is full of great historical narrative.
The stories are a reminder that truth is stranger - and more fascinating - than fiction.
This book is unlike anything else I have read in that it intertwines historical accounts with modern applications and experiences along with social commentary with particular regard to medicine and healthcare today, and does so seamlessly!
A great blend of history and science, biography and autobiography. Why hadn't anyone thought of writing this before?
Dr. Lam's background in both history and medicine likely contribute.
The writing style, research, and subject matter combine to produce an amazing book that really does do justice to those who can truly be called heroes.
Lest anyone think that the writing is too technical, I have seen firsthand that a wide reading audience will love this book. I am a physician, but not an ophthalmologist, and I bought it for my ophthalmologist colleagues, and my non-physician wife enjoyed it immensely as well. Everyone remarked on how fast of a read and insightful it was. This should be required reading for anyone interested in medicine and especially ophthalmology, but also for children who need to SEE what it truly means to be a hero.
An unexpected page-turner, given the subject matter. It reads like a novel and is full of great historical narrative.
The stories are a reminder that truth is stranger - and more fascinating - than fiction.
This book is unlike anything else I have read in that it intertwines historical accounts with modern applications and experiences along with social commentary with particular regard to medicine and healthcare today, and does so seamlessly!
A great blend of history and science, biography and autobiography. Why hadn't anyone thought of writing this before?
Dr. Lam's background in both history and medicine likely contribute.
The writing style, research, and subject matter combine to produce an amazing book that really does do justice to those who can truly be called heroes.
Lest anyone think that the writing is too technical, I have seen firsthand that a wide reading audience will love this book. I am a physician, but not an ophthalmologist, and I bought it for my ophthalmologist colleagues, and my non-physician wife enjoyed it immensely as well. Everyone remarked on how fast of a read and insightful it was. This should be required reading for anyone interested in medicine and especially ophthalmology, but also for children who need to SEE what it truly means to be a hero.
September 1, 2024
Loved this book! To all my fellow future optometrists out there you should give this a read!
July 14, 2013
The stories of the ophthalmology innovators were riveting -- in a way I didn't expect. Who knew that a book on the history of ophthalmology would be such a page-turner? I finished the book in one night. I didn't know that there was so much progress in the field of eye surgery in the last 30 years. Dr. Lam also addresses the future of medicine with such candor and clarity. A fantastic read for everyone!
December 1, 2013
I discovered this book related to my job, but from the very first scene, Lam had me hooked. He provides a very readable, engaging introduction to the world of ophthalmology and several significant innovations in the last several decades. It was particularly interesting to learn how the pioneering work of some ophthalmologists has not just changed their own field, but had a wide-ranging impact on cancer research and small-incision surgery, to name a couple cases Lam covers. The chapter on Louis Braille was also fascinating and moving. I really enjoyed reading this book.
June 18, 2017
Saw this in the waiting room of the retinal specialist I was seeing for a hole in my retina. Fascinating read...made me feel slightly better that they will be able to help my sight as I age...aging is damned scary. Sight is so crucial to survival and I thank God that there are people out there who will pursue their research in spite of the doubters they encounter. The insurance situation is scary too.
April 28, 2019
The parts about the innovators were wonderful.
June 28, 2020
Great book, although the dramatizations of history come off a little corny. Also too bad there's no Kindle version.
June 22, 2023
I really enjoyed this book! Dr. Lam masterfully weaves together the captivating history of ophthalmology with relatable personal anecdotes that illustrate its contemporary applications. As a high school student, this book made me much more interested in the world of ophthalmology and provided valuable insights into the mindset of bold and brilliant individuals who revolutionized the field. My only complaint would be that the structure of each chapter got somewhat repetitive, but it made it a great book to read over intervals, as if I was reading one article from a magazine each day.
April 19, 2024
My retina specialist. He's a wonderful doctor and so interesting. He lectures locally about a variety of subjects.
July 11, 2013
When my daughter was 5, she had a frightening incident involving a foreign object in her eye. We had no idea what it was, but every effort to flush it out with water failed. Clearly in pain, she cried and repeated, "I can't see! It hurts!" I was scared out of my mind, afraid she'd have permanent eye damage. I called the doctor's office in tears, and in the end, a pediatric ophthalmologist used specialized equipment to identify and remove a TINY, thin, clear piece of plastic.
In Saving Sight, Andrew Lam writes about eye injuries that are 1,000 times worse than what my daughter experienced.
This book has two main focuses, both of which made for really fascinating and compelling reading: the author's personal experiences with various types of eye issues he has encountered with his patients, and the individuals who made the amazing advances in technology and medicine that help cure those eye conditions.
I appreciated the author's frank honesty as he recounted the care he gave his patients. He was at times doubtful and uncertain, but he utilized his training and found solutions to whatever problems were put in front of him. In this line of work, in which the doctor is literally giving people the gift of sight - which, in turn, is sometimes equivalent to the gift of life itself - one might imagine that such a doctor would develop a kind of God complex. But, Dr. Lam comes across as humble and dedicated, with a bedside manner that I wish my doctors had.
The stories behind the major innovations in eye care were equally interesting. Most of us probably don't give a second thought to the specialized equipment, techniques, and drugs used to examine, improve, and maintain our eye sight (like LASIK) or to cope with loss of sight (like braille). But, wow! These inventions and advancements - and the people behind them - have had and continue to have such an incredibly significant impact on so many people's lives that I really think Dr. Lam is doing the world a service by telling their stories. As a sort of added bonus, many of the stories have a World War II connection that any history buff would be likely to appreciate. (It's not surprising that the author received his undergraduate degree in History, as noted in the "About the Author" section.)
If you're very squeamish, it may be worth noting that some of the information outlining medical procedures performed on the eyes is explicit and detailed. Also, the book describes medical research performed on animals, which may not be agreeable to everyone (though hopefully everyone would be able to see the important scientific value of such research). Even Monsanto, the giant of recent GMO (genetically modified organisms) backlash, makes a cameo in a positive light.
While thoroughly appreciating all that I read in this book, I sometimes wondered if the one book tried to be too many things all at once. As a whole, the book is readable and approachable, though the writing style jumps around between informal first-person narrative (like a memoir), third-person historical fiction, and straight-up non-fiction. Tangential commentary popped up here and there about different aspects of the American medical system, like the medicolegal climate and flaws in the healthcare system. Though still interesting to read, these observations were like side discussions relative to the main ideas of the book.
Finally, as a person with a close family member with Parkinson's Disease, I sometimes feel it is my responsibility to help accurately spread Parkinson's awareness. On page 51 of the paperback version, Dr. Irving S. Cooper is said to have "developed a freezing probe...to cure Parkinson's disease." Many people might just gloss over the sentence, but in this case, I am a stickler for word choice. While Parkinson's Disease can be "managed" with medicine and surgery, there is no actual cure yet - though many dedicated people are working towards finding one. The U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health describes Dr. Cooper this way: "He developed several novel techniques for the surgical management of Parkinson's disease," and his work helped to "alleviate the movement disorders associated with Parkinson's disease." (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/98...)
Overall, a really interesting read that I think any person who has ever seen an eye doctor would appreciate. An inspirational book that I will keep on my bookshelf and encourage my children to read when they are older.
In Saving Sight, Andrew Lam writes about eye injuries that are 1,000 times worse than what my daughter experienced.
This book has two main focuses, both of which made for really fascinating and compelling reading: the author's personal experiences with various types of eye issues he has encountered with his patients, and the individuals who made the amazing advances in technology and medicine that help cure those eye conditions.
I appreciated the author's frank honesty as he recounted the care he gave his patients. He was at times doubtful and uncertain, but he utilized his training and found solutions to whatever problems were put in front of him. In this line of work, in which the doctor is literally giving people the gift of sight - which, in turn, is sometimes equivalent to the gift of life itself - one might imagine that such a doctor would develop a kind of God complex. But, Dr. Lam comes across as humble and dedicated, with a bedside manner that I wish my doctors had.
The stories behind the major innovations in eye care were equally interesting. Most of us probably don't give a second thought to the specialized equipment, techniques, and drugs used to examine, improve, and maintain our eye sight (like LASIK) or to cope with loss of sight (like braille). But, wow! These inventions and advancements - and the people behind them - have had and continue to have such an incredibly significant impact on so many people's lives that I really think Dr. Lam is doing the world a service by telling their stories. As a sort of added bonus, many of the stories have a World War II connection that any history buff would be likely to appreciate. (It's not surprising that the author received his undergraduate degree in History, as noted in the "About the Author" section.)
If you're very squeamish, it may be worth noting that some of the information outlining medical procedures performed on the eyes is explicit and detailed. Also, the book describes medical research performed on animals, which may not be agreeable to everyone (though hopefully everyone would be able to see the important scientific value of such research). Even Monsanto, the giant of recent GMO (genetically modified organisms) backlash, makes a cameo in a positive light.
While thoroughly appreciating all that I read in this book, I sometimes wondered if the one book tried to be too many things all at once. As a whole, the book is readable and approachable, though the writing style jumps around between informal first-person narrative (like a memoir), third-person historical fiction, and straight-up non-fiction. Tangential commentary popped up here and there about different aspects of the American medical system, like the medicolegal climate and flaws in the healthcare system. Though still interesting to read, these observations were like side discussions relative to the main ideas of the book.
Finally, as a person with a close family member with Parkinson's Disease, I sometimes feel it is my responsibility to help accurately spread Parkinson's awareness. On page 51 of the paperback version, Dr. Irving S. Cooper is said to have "developed a freezing probe...to cure Parkinson's disease." Many people might just gloss over the sentence, but in this case, I am a stickler for word choice. While Parkinson's Disease can be "managed" with medicine and surgery, there is no actual cure yet - though many dedicated people are working towards finding one. The U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health describes Dr. Cooper this way: "He developed several novel techniques for the surgical management of Parkinson's disease," and his work helped to "alleviate the movement disorders associated with Parkinson's disease." (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/98...)
Overall, a really interesting read that I think any person who has ever seen an eye doctor would appreciate. An inspirational book that I will keep on my bookshelf and encourage my children to read when they are older.
June 18, 2013
This was a really great book about an eye surgeon's life and his appreciation for the "heroes" of his field whose discoveries have benefited everyone. The author vividly describes what it is like to operate, and I learned a lot about what eye surgeons can do - like remove cataracts and implant artificial lenses, perform LASIK surgery, treat premature babies to save their sight, and halt macular degeneration using eye injections. The narrative is fast-paced and very interesting, especially if you've ever wondered how surgeons feel when they aren't sure what to do next, or when they fear they might fail. This is a fascinating, honest look inside the operating room.
The historical profiles were also fascinating - the biographies of doctors who invented the techniques all eye doctors use today. There was a doctor named Harold Ridley who invented the artificial lens after he saw a pilot who'd been shot down in WWII with pieces of plexiglass from his shattered canopy embedded in his eyes. This lucky encounter showed Ridley that plexiglass was a transparent material that could be used to make an artificial lens. Anyone who's had cataract surgery has benefited from this today.
Another fascinating story was that of Arnall Patz, who was only a doctor in training when he discovered that premature babies were going blind from getting too much oxygen. He almost single-handedly changed the way all these babies were treated and saved the sight of tens of thousands.
There were a lot more great stories, as well. The author skillfully blends his personal experiences with the history to make it all both relevant and entertaining.
Best book I've read in a long time! I'm going to recommend this to all my friends!
The historical profiles were also fascinating - the biographies of doctors who invented the techniques all eye doctors use today. There was a doctor named Harold Ridley who invented the artificial lens after he saw a pilot who'd been shot down in WWII with pieces of plexiglass from his shattered canopy embedded in his eyes. This lucky encounter showed Ridley that plexiglass was a transparent material that could be used to make an artificial lens. Anyone who's had cataract surgery has benefited from this today.
Another fascinating story was that of Arnall Patz, who was only a doctor in training when he discovered that premature babies were going blind from getting too much oxygen. He almost single-handedly changed the way all these babies were treated and saved the sight of tens of thousands.
There were a lot more great stories, as well. The author skillfully blends his personal experiences with the history to make it all both relevant and entertaining.
Best book I've read in a long time! I'm going to recommend this to all my friends!
August 17, 2013
Andrew Lam's Saving Sight is a wonderful blend of the fascinating history of ophthalmology and the insider's view of life as an eye surgeon. As a fellow ophthalmologist myself, I was so surprised at how much I didn't know about our field's history! Lam's stories thoughtfully weave together history, personal experience and ophthalmic surgical advances in a way that is both educational and entertaining. A great read!
February 2, 2014
Excellent history about breakthroughs in ophthalmology and current day practice. Quick read which keeps your interest and makes you really appreciate vision.
May 11, 2016
Excellent book about history of ophthalmology!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews