As with all other aspects of human history, the continued progress of medicine is not guaranteed.
The great medical achievements that have saved millions of lives and alleviated untold suffering were neither planned nor inevitable.
Rather, it is far from that.
These significant advances were made by one or a few individuals who were always prone to error.
Through persistence, skill, and sometimes sheer luck, they took risks and discovered important things in ways no one had tried before or succeeded in.

--- p.10, from the "Preface"

He realized that he had proven for the first time in history that injecting contrast dye into a coronary artery did not kill the patient.
(...) Later that day, Sons returned to the office and declared to his colleagues.
“We have revolutionized cardiology!”
--- p.34~35, from “Heart Disease - The Heretic Son”

To a non-surgeon, heart surgery seems like nothing more than a miracle.
Heart surgery is passionate, bloody, and beautiful.
The hands of a cardiac surgeon are swift, precise, and beautiful, but wherever they touch, a passionate scene unfolds.

--- p.44, from “Heart Disease - The Heretic Son”

Anyone who sees this miraculous sight for the first time feels a strong sense of awe.
Even God could not have known that we would do this.
But human diligence and courage made this possible.

--- p.45~46, from “Heart Disease - The Heretic Son”

(...) But even during this time, Collip continued to devote himself to research day and night.
Just a few days later, one night in mid-January, Collip succeeded in producing his first nearly pure extract.
(...) At this moment, Colin became the first person in history to actually see in physical form what the team would later call 'insulin.'

--- p.100, from “Diabetes - The Peeing Devil”

The quest to discover and conquer the unknown microbes that have claimed millions of lives throughout human history is a story of unparalleled feat and a struggle that continues to this day.
Masters like Pasteur, Koch, Ehrlich, Fleming, Florey, Chain, and Heatley were both brilliant and flawed people.
Their adventures are filled with astonishingly daring endeavors and accomplishments, and at times tainted by arrogance, conflict, and petty resentment.
Their competitive nature has caused many fights, but it has also clearly helped them reach greater heights.
They left us tools to protect ourselves against an invisible, persistent enemy.
I hope we have the sense to use that gift well.

--- p.190, from "Bacterial Infections - The Magic Bullet"

But in fact, both of them were protagonists who achieved numerous victories.
Thanks to these two men, Americans didn't have to spend their summers in fear.
Just as the rivalry between Pasteur and Koch fueled their respective great achievements, the rivalry between Salk and Sabin ultimately proved beneficial to humanity.
Thanks to these two men and the research teams they led, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved, and millions of children have been spared paralysis.

--- p.242~243, from “Viral Infection - Pandemics”

Groove attempted to use X-rays to treat an elderly woman whose breast cancer had recurred after a mastectomy.
Groove treated the tumor for 18 consecutive days.
It was a painful treatment for the patient, but fortunately the tumor gradually shrank.
The patient later died from brain metastases, but the positive early results encouraged Grove to try X-ray therapy in other patients with localized tumors.
It was the moment when 'radiation therapy', a new method of treating cancer, was born.

--- p.267, from “Cancer - A Bafflingly Complex Arrangement”

The operating room of the 19th century had a gloomy atmosphere.
The most prestigious surgeons operated in large university hospitals, and the operations were performed in places like the Roman amphitheater.
(...)
They did not have a separate step for washing hands.
Washing your hands before surgery didn't make sense, and even if you did wash them, it seemed logical to wash them after surgery.
Surgical instruments were used on multiple patients without being washed.

--- p.330, from “Trauma - The only winner in war is medicine”

There was only one factor that spurred dramatic advances in trauma treatment: war.
The two disastrous world wars created countless types of trauma.
It was so serious and diverse that it made all the conflicts humans had experienced before seem trivial.
Of course, the World War II did not only bring new injuries.
Soldiers suffered gunshot wounds, stab wounds, bleeding, and fractures, just like in any other war.
Still, these losses could have been helped by decades of slow but clear advances in triage, surgical techniques, speed of treatment, and infection control.
These are developments that would have been achieved in the civilian sector at some point, even if at a slower pace, even without war.
What the two world wars truly presented to doctors, however, was the opportunity to confront on a large scale new and gruesome types of injury never before encountered.
The history of this era vividly proves the adage that 'the only winner in war is medicine.'

--- p.349~350, from “Trauma - The only winner in war is medicine”

About 30 minutes after giving birth, bleeding began.
As blood began to leak from the sac, Croft faced a dire crisis and was forced to make a difficult decision.
(...)
Croft inserted his finger into the vagina and scraped the placenta from the uterine wall.
Charlotte cried out in pain.
(...) But after 25 minutes, when the placenta still hadn't come out on its own, Croft scraped it out with her hands.
Then more bleeding occurred.

--- p.389, from "Childbirth - The Mysterious Murderer"

This is the beautiful characteristic of humanity.
Some of us have the potential to make brilliant intellectual leaps, the courage to take enormous risks, and the will to stand up for our beliefs in the face of ridicule and rejection.
This unique quality offers hope to those who fear that humans will one day be replaced by advanced robots or artificial intelligence.
The ability to come up with new ideas and sometimes take irrational risks is what makes humanity irreplaceable, despite all its flaws and failures.

--- p.452, from “Conclusion - Masters of Medicine”

Where will the next heretics in medicine emerge, and how can we support their advancement?

--- p.453, from “Conclusion - Masters of Medicine”