Operative Notes

Just home after five years in India, Dr. Lawrence W. Norton launches his career in academic surgery one Saturday night in Denver operating with surgical residents on patients with knife and gun-shot wounds. He moves on to do challenging elective operations in university hospitals, while training residents and medical students. His stories, told with compassion, candor and occasionally humor describe the path of operating, teaching and research that culminates in becoming a Professor of Surgery. Along the way he experiences clinical victories and defeats treating patients suffering from life-threatening conditions. In OPERATIVE NOTES, the third book of a medical trilogy, Dr. Norton opens doors to the mysteries of operating room behavior, doctor-patient relationships, and camaraderie among surgeons both in the United States and overseas. Dr. Norton graduated from Colgate University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He interned at the Cincinnati General Hospital, and did surgical residencies at the universities of Colorado and Kentucky. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery. After serving five years in a mission hospital in Assam, India, he returned to the United States and entered academic surgery. Since his retirement he has served as a visiting professor in medical schools and a volunteer surgeon in mission hospitals in developing countries. He and his wife, Ann, reside in Colorado where they enjoy the families of their four daughters and singing, sailing, mountain sports and travel.