Harvey Cushing: A Biography
By John F. Fulton
Read by Edison McDaniels, MD

Coming soon to Audible!
The 1946 biography of Harvey Cushing by John Fulton on audiobook for the first time ever!

“The Power of One, the Impact of Many.” For neurosurgery, there is no individual who encapsulates the power of one better than Harvey Cushing. Cushing (1869-1939) is the founding father of modern neurosurgery and was remarkably productive even by today’s standards. It is estimated that in addition to everything else he accomplished, he wrote the equivalent of 1,000 words a day for the entirety of his 70 years on this earth. He also operated on over 2,000 brain tumors (less than 5 attempts had been made to operate on any brain tumor before him, only one successfully). This was at a time without antibiotics, specialized imaging, blood transfusions, intensive care units, or anything more than primitive early anesthetic techniques. He quite literally invented modern brain surgery.

HARVEY CUSHING, A BIOGRAPHY, by John Fulton. 
• This is the definitive biography of Harvey Cushing, published in 1946.
• First time ever on audio!
• This is not an AI production. The voice is mine, and all technical aspects of the production are my own work. I am a team of 1. This is a highly polished presentation.
• The audiobook is 45 hours in length.. 
• Listeners can go directly to individual chapters or any of the excerpts or bonus materials.

The Story of a Great Medical Pioneer

Written in 1946 by the eminent scholar and physiologist John F. Fulton, a man who knew and worked alongside Cushing, this is the definitive biography of one of the most significant figures in the history of medicine and surgery. Cushing’s legacy is present in every operating room in the world everyday, for he was much more than the father of modern neurosurgery: among other innovations, he was the first to follow blood pressure during surgery and the first to develop a practical means of doing so. He was a pioneer in electrocautery, otherwise known as the electric knife, which is used in most operations today to control bleeding. He worked out the relationship between gigantism and pituitary tumors. These are just a few of the numerous innovations and discoveries he is credited with.

He counted among his friends and patients many of the foremost physicians, statesmen, scientists, and scholars of his time. One of his daughter’s married FDR’s son. Included among the correspondence here are notes and letters with Sir William Osler (the father of modern internal medicine), Walter Reed (the man who conquered Yellow Fever), William H. Taft, The Mayo Brothers (founders of The Mayo Clinic), William Halsted (the father of modern surgery), and many, many more.

This work will be of great interest to neurosurgeons, medical students, nurses, neurosurgical physician associates, medical product reps, and anyone with any interest in the history of medicine. Cushing knew everybody who was anybody in medicine during the first third of the 20th century and it’s all described here in remarkable prose. There is much material here on the founding of the Johns Hopkins Medical School as well as the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Includes the founding of the the Cushing Brain Tumor Archive at Yale and The Harvey Cushing Society, now known as the AANS. It will be easily accessible and can be listened to in piecemeal fashion, such as to and from work for 10 minutes at a time, or on a long car ride or when traveling by plane for hours. A surprising amount of Cushing’s advice remains relevant to today’s physicians in general and neurosurgeons in particular.

I am a board certified neurosurgeon. I am also an accomplished audiobook narrator. I developed this over the years as a hobby that I could work at at any hour of the day or night amidst the busy schedule of a practicing neurosurgeon. I have a professional recording studio in my home and have recorded over 50,000 minutes of spoken word audio.

e150.e4 Intimate Mix of Neuro and NS Ch15

e160.e3 Controlling Hemorrhage Ch16

e160.e6 Visit from Sherrington Ch16

e170.e6 Advice to Neurosurgeons from HC Ch17

180.1 Ch 18: Return to Yale: The Professor of Neurology 1933-1937

e190.e3 HC speaks at 70th BD Ch19

e190.e4 HC Fellowship in Royal College Ch19

210 About the Author

220 The Original Book Jacket

In this podcast, we discuss the 2025 paper published in the Journal of Primary Health Care on primary care awareness and diagnostic confidence regarding Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM). We explore why clinicians—particularly those in primary care—should consider DCM, common diagnostic challenges, and the path forward.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/HC24180

Disclaimer: This podcast was generated using NotebookLM, has been professionally proofed, and reflects the author’s insights.

New Zealand Primary Care Awareness of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

Audiobook narrator Edison McDaniels does both fiction and nonfiction work. He also has the technical expertise and background to do complicated technical narrations, such as medical and legal books and papers. He is also interested in and quite adept at military fiction and war stories, especially naval adventures. A special interest is speculative fiction and literary fiction.

Edison has his own in house audio studio. He has a unique and varied background, all of which contribute to his expertise in spoken word audio production in general and audiobook narration in particular. He is a Stanford Med School graduate, a physician, a board certified surgeon, a veteran of sixteen years of active duty naval service (promoted through the ranks from E1 to 05 [that’s Commander, one step below full Captain]). An author, he has published a dozen novels and numerous short stories. Most of his stories are either speculative fiction; he is partial to ghost stories. All of his stories are intense, and tend to showcase ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Find him on Amazon.

His spoken word audio work is rich and diverse. He has narrated over 50 books and a number of short stories. The SurgicalFiction Podcast showcases many of the books and tales he has narrated. Selections on the podcast include entire stories lasting several hours, as well as chapter readings, brief excerpts, and pieces of popular fiction and nonfiction. You will also find selections of both popular and obscure tales from the public domain.

He has a special affinity for tales showcasing medical and surgical fiction (hence the name of the podcast), as well as nautical fiction.

His fully outfitted audio studio includes a dedicated Studiobricks audio booth, several Apple computers and monitors, a Studio One Artist (v. 5) digital audio workstation, an IoStation 24c audio interface, and Izotope RX6 Standard for mastering and production standardization. He uses a Sennheiser MK4 condenser microphone for all his productions. He uses a punch and roll technique, which allows for on the fly direction and immediate correction for word substitutions, tone shifts, pronunciation errors, characterizations, etc. 

The voice you hear is always his and his alone. You can catch him on reading his own stories on facebook live from time to time as well. Follow him on facebook and join his email list at surgicalfiction.com. He also has a presence on facebook and his twitter handle is @surgeonwriter.

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