With poignant insight and humor, Frank Vertosick, Jr., MD, describes a number of the most significant problems of his career, including a six-week-old baby having a tumor in her human brain, a young guy struck straight down in his perfect by paraplegia, and a minister having a .22-caliber bullet lodged in his skull. Informed through personal portraits of Vertosick’s sufferers and unsparing yet fascinatingly detailed explanations of surgical treatments, When the environment Hits Your Brain-the culmination of years spent struggling to learn an unforgiving craft-illuminates both the mysteries of your brain and the realities from the operating room.