All That Moves Us by Jay Wellons

“The surgical interventions in these pages are dizzying, but the fact that Jay Wellons can write as well as he can operate provides a whole other level of amazement.”—Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth

“A powerful and moving account of the intense joys and sorrows of being a pediatric neurosurgeon.”—Henry Marsh, New York Times bestselling author of Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery

In All That Moves Us, Dr. Jay Wellons pulls back the curtain to reveal the profoundly moving triumphs, haunting complications, and harrowing close calls that characterize the life of a pediatric neurosurgeon, bringing the high-stakes drama of the operating room to life with astonishing candor and honest compassion. Reflecting on lessons learned over twenty-five years and thousands of operations completed on some of the most vulnerable and precious among us, Wellons recounts with gripping detail the moments that have shaped him as a doctor, as a parent, and as the only hope for countless patients whose young lives are in his hands.

From the little boy who arrived in Wellons’ operating room with a gunshot wound to the head, to repairing the shredded nerves of a newborn using suture as fine as human hair, to the aftermath of a challenging brain tumor resection in a teenage cheerleader, and the intensity of operating on the fetal spinal cord in the womb, All That Moves Us is an unforgettable portrait of the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern children’s hospital—and a meditation on the marvel of life as seen from under the white-hot lights of the operating room.

Publication History: RH HC (6/22)

Jay Wellons MD, MSPH, is a Professor in the Departments of Neurological surgery, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Radiology, and Radiological Sciences at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He holds the Cal Turner chair and is chief of the division of pediatric neurosurgery and is the medical director for the Surgical Outcomes Center for Kids, (SOCKs) which he co-founded. He has written op-eds for The New York Times and lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his family.

Author Residence: Nashville, TN