Summary of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm

Summary of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm is neurosurgeon Henry Marsh’s memoir, with a particular focus on his mistakes and regrets.

Marsh admits that he grew up privileged. He began his college career studying English, but quit school due to an unrequited love. He took a job working in a mining town hospital, an experience that inspired him to become a surgeon. He returned to Oxford to finish his degree and then attended the Royal Free Medical School in London, the only medical school at the time that did not require him to have any scientific qualifications.

As a medical student, Marsh worked as a nursing assistant on the psycho-geriatric ward of a long term psychiatric hospital. There he saw many patients who had been given lobectomies at the hospital where he would later train. Lobectomies were an accepted method of treating severe mental disorders, but would often leave the patient worse off than they were before…