A Fullness of Uncertain Significance
Bruce Campbell, MD, FACS
Otolaryngology, SOPW Board member
2022, Ten16 Press
When Dr. Bruce H. Campbell first set foot in a hospital as a seventeen-year-old nursing assistant, he observed the best and the worst of doctors, hospitals, and the entire health care team. These lessons returned to him and shaped his own journey as he became a surgeon. Through these well-crafted, poignant, sometimes funny, and always insightful stories, he shares what his patients and their families shared, having never forgotten what it felt like to be a beginner.
Praise for A Fullness of Uncertain Significance
“Campbell writes with a tone of honest humility as he describes various triumphs and frustrations during his career…throughout, Campbell’s prose is conversational, humorous, and straightforward.”
- Kirkus Reviews“In this tender and candid collection of short essays, Dr. Bruce Campbell illuminates how much medicine is truly the sacred act of holding vigil with and for our patients. Through his reflections, we get a glimpse of how surgeons hone their instincts, grow through challenges, and cope with disappointment as they navigate the uncertainty inherent in medicine. Through his polished lens, the reader understands how even in the pressurized world of surgery, heavy with the responsibility of healing through a scalpel’s cuts, there are moments of intimacy that are filled with grace.“
—Rana Awdish, MD, FCCP, FACP, author of In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope “Dr. Bruce Campbell turns his scalpel on his own history as a surgeon, probing the medical field past, present, and future. His vibrant stories illuminate the fundamental human underpinnings of medical science, bringing to light the glories, tragedies, imperfections, and uncertainties we must all grapple with. Eminently readable and richly satisfying.”
—Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, Editor-in-Chief of Bellevue Literary Review, and author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error