From the battlefields of Vietnam to the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention; from an organ donor company in Ohio where he “strips dead bodies for a living,” to a remote African village where he cares for victims of the Biafran War, All Bleeding Stops is a grand and sweeping narrative tracing one man’s journey to reconcile love for his patients with the cold reality that there are some problems no doctor can ever fix.
"BCBS is a gripping, humane, humorous and enlightening read.”
—Abraham Verghese
“Collins has a poet’s soul, whether describing the sunrise through a laborer’s eyes or what it means to be human through a physician’s.”
—Booklist
“Collins has a poet’s soul, whether describing the sunrise through a laborer’s eyes or what it means to be human through a physician’s.”
—Booklist
“One of the best, funniest medical memoirs I have ever read. Hot Lights, Cold Steel is at once darkly humorous and truly compassionate.”
—Michael Palmer
“One of the best, funniest medical memoirs I have ever read. Hot Lights, Cold Steel is at once darkly humorous and truly compassionate.”
—Michael Palmer
“I adore this book. It’s so polished and hilarious. I give this book a 10+!”
—Tess Gerritsen
Welcome to the official website of surgeon and author, Michael Collins. Mike’s books reflect his belief that although doctors’ lives are often rewarding and fulfilling, they face many difficult challenges. What are those challenges? That’s what his books are all about.
Book Trailer
Praise for All Bleeding Stops
Welcome
Mike is the author of two works of non-fiction. His days as a laborer trying to get into medical school are chronicled in Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs. His years as resident and inveterate moonlighter in rural Minnesota emergency rooms are the subject of Hot Lights, Cold Steel. Both of Mike’s books have been included on the required or recommended reading lists at multiple medical schools and pre-med programs.
His latest work, All Bleeding Stops, represents a departure for Mike in that it is a work of fiction. In writing this book, Mike says he hopes to raise awareness of the difficulty doctors face in learning to care for and about their patients. The very qualities—compassion, sensitivity, dedication—that lead young people to a career in medicine, are often the seeds of their own destruction. Sometimes they care too much. “A generation of young men went to Vietnam naive and idealistic,” Mike says. “They returned home broken and disillusioned—if they returned at all. We doctors are often victims of a similar fate. Like soldiers, the things we see and do are often too much to bear. And, like soldiers, not all of us make it back.”