Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility

This history of medicine collection presents the biographies of five pioneering anesthetists through the lens of leadership.

Starting with William Morton who discovered ether anesthesia in 1846, the book continues with an account of John Snow, who studied both chloroform and cholera, and became the world’s first epidemiologist. Three previously untold complete biographies follow to illustrate the transformation of the crude practice of Anesthesia to the sophisticated medical specialty of Anesthesiology of today. Based on original archival research, the life stories of Arthur Guedel (famous for his ‘dunked dog’ demonstrations), Virginia Apgar (who developed the APGAR Score), and Bjørn Ibsen (the ‘father of intensive care’) are related.

The book closes with ‘A Leadership Reckoning’—the author’s comparative analysis of each pioneer’s leadership capacity based on the telling of their histories—and concludes that leadership, just like beauty, can manifest differently in different individuals.


Dr Berend Mets is Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the Pennsylvania State University, and is the author of Waking up Safer? An Anesthesiologist’s Record. He has published extensively on leadership, anesthesia, education and medicine.

“As an anesthesiologist with a PhD in pharmacology, Dr Berend Mets has staked out an unapologetic island between these authorship extremes with this remarkable new book. To readers, Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility simultaneously offers meaty biographies and a leadership primer. […] Had I been wise enough to begin reading this book earlier in the day, I would have finished it in one sitting. […] This book is certainly required reading for any aspiring anesthesiology leader or anybody hoping to maintain a leadership position. A lot of facts and a load of wisdom are packed inside this volume.”
George S. Bause, MD, MPH
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Anesthesiology Vol. 134, No. 6

“This is a book for doctors in every discipline, but particularly those pursuing careers in anaesthesia and intensive care who want to know more about their history. It will also have appeal for the general reader with an interest in medical history. This book is fast-paced and fun; it is written with a dramatic style, but is very readable.”
Christine Ball
Prahran, Victoria, Australia; British Journal of Anaesthesia, 126 (2)

Buy This Book

ISBN: 1-5275-5596-8

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-5596-9

Release Date: 27th August 2020

Pages: 341

Price: £64.99

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ISBN: 1-5275-6836-9

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-6836-5

Release Date: 26th May 2021

Pages: 341

Price: £31.99

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