-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia
by Henry Jay Przybylo MD
A moving exploration of the most common but most mysterious procedure in medicine.
For many of the 40 million Americans who undergo anesthesia each year, it is the source of great fear and fascination. From the famous first demonstration of anesthesia in the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 to today's routine procedure that controls anxiety, memory formation, pain relief, and more, anesthesia has come a long way. But it remains one of the most extraordinary, unexplored corners of the medical world.
In Counting Backwards, Dr. Henry Jay Przybylo - a pediatric anesthesiologist with more than thirty years of experience - pulls back the curtain and delivers an unforgettable account of the procedure's daily dramas and fundamental mysteries. Przybylo has administered anesthesia more than 30,000 times in his career - erasing consciousness, denying memory, and immobilizing the body, and then reversing all of these effects - on newborn babies, screaming toddlers, sullen teenagers, even a gorilla. With compassion and candor, he weaves his experiences into intimate stories that explore the nature of consciousness, the politics of pain relief, and the wonder of modern medicine.
Filled with intense and humane tales of near-disasters, life-saving successes, and moments of grace, Counting Backwards is for anyone curious about what happens after we lose consciousness.
"Starred Review. [Pryzbylo] weaves an enjoyable narrative out of personal anecdotes from the wealth of experience he has gained over more than 30 years ... [and] offers a rare and thoughtful look behind the scenes of this crucial yet arcane speacialization." - Publishers Weekly
"Stirring… A rare peek into the world of one of the more underrated and mysterious procedures in modern medicine." - Library Journal
"[A] vividly written, candid exploration ... striking in content and quite moving. ... A fascinating tour of a mystifying, unnerving, yet precious medical necessity." - Kirkus
"I stayed up late to finish this book. In clear, direct prose, Dr. Przybylo offers a fascinating tour of the world of an anesthesiologist. Beautifully written, insightful, and informative, Counting Backwards is a great contribution, highly recommended." - Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of Stay
"An engaging and illuminating exploration of the invisible medical specialty that is anesthesia. We may seem to float effortlessly into an ether - world of unconsciousness during anesthesia, but Dr. Przybylo gives us a cockpit view of the human hands that pull the levers of our physiology. Counting Backwards pulls back the veil on the very act of being alive." - Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear
This information about Counting Backwards was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Henry Jay Przybylo, MD is an associate professor of anesthesiology at Northwestern University School of Medicine. He also holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. He lives in Chicago.
If you liked Counting Backwards, try these:
by Mary Roach
Published 2026
From the New York Times bestselling author of Stiff and Fuzz, a rollicking exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy.
by Theodore H.. Schwartz
Published 2024
A popular biography of brain surgery, by one of its preeminent practitioners.
by Audrey Blake
Published 2021
The story of one woman who believed in scientific medicine before the world believed in her.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
