Dr. W. Lee Warren’s life as a neurosurgeon in a trauma center began to unravel long before he shipped off to serve the Air Force in Iraq in 2004. When he traded a comfortable if demanding practice in San Antonio, Texas, for a ride on a C-130 into the combat zone, he was already reeling from months of personal struggle. At the 332nd Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, Warren realized his experience with trauma was just beginning. In his 120 days in a tent hospital, he was trained in a different specialty—surviving over a hundred mortar attacks and trying desperately to repair the damages of a war that raged around every detail of every day. No place was safe, and the constant barrage wore down every possible defense, physical or psychological. One day, clad only in a T-shirt, gym shorts, and running shoes, Warren was caught in the open while round after round of mortars shook the earth and shattered the air with their explosions, stripping him of everything he had been trying so desperately to hold on to.
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Amazon: No Place to Hide
My review
No Place to Hide is one of those books you can’t put down. I don’t usually read a lot of non fiction. It’s a biography and yet reads like a story. Dr. Warren gives you an inside look of his experiences during the Iraq war. I liked his honesty about what happened, how he felt about it and his faith journey. I think that each reader can understand and learn the same valuable truths that Dr. Warren did.
He wrote in vivid detail of his patients and the surgeries he performed. I felt like I was standing there in the field hospital. It was fascinating to read and I was hoping for the best with each patient. One interesting thing I learned is that in some situations such as a field hospital, the neurosurgeon would place the brain flap into the abdomen for safe keeping until it was safe to reattach it.
This book made me realize how little I knew about the Iraq war and the doctors that helped save the many lives affected by the battles. What stood out was that every doctor working helped whoever was hurt regardless of who they were. I was encouraged by the good things that happened at the field hospital. It gave me hope in the middle of chaos.
I listened to this as an audio book. The narrator had a calm and easy to listen to voice. He was easy to follow and understand.
This biography is worth reading. I highly recommend this book to my family and friends.
I borrowed this book from the library. All thoughts are my own.
About the Author
His last book, No Place to Hide, was named to the 2015 U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff’s Recommended Reading List. Dr. Warren has appeared on The 700 Club, the CBS Evening News, and his writings have been featured in Guideposts magazine. Dr. Warren practices neurosurgery at The Wyoming Medical Center. He plays the guitar and loves to make connections between faith, science, and the realities of life. Dr. Warren lives in Wyoming with his wife, Lisa. Dr. Warren has appeared on The 700 Club, in Guideposts Magazine, and on radio and podcast interviews all over the world.
I want to read this book. It sounds like something I would curl up with on the couch on the weekend. Thank you for the review.
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