O.R.: 2the True Story of 24 Hours in a Hospital Operating Room

Newsday science and medical reporter Colen ( The Essential Gide to a Living Will ) here records in palpable fashion what goes on during a typical 24-hour period in an operating room which he monitored for six weeks at a teaching hospital on New York's Long Island. He makes readers marvel at the surgeons' split-second decisions, almost artistic skill, mastery of technology and teamwork in his eyewitness of open heart surgery and facial reconstruction of babies, among other procedures. As a head nurse affirms, not only is O.R. ``the unknown place'' to all but those who work there, it also calls for nurses to act as the patients' ``advocates'' during their operations. BOMC selection. (Apr.)