Tooth and Nail: The Making of a Female Fight Doctor

Linda Dahl is an otolaryngologist in private practice in Manhattan. She was one of only a few women to ever serve as ringside doctor for the New York Athletic Commission. A native Midwesterner, Dahl received her MD from the University of Minnesota Medical School. She is the author of a Clinician's Guide to Breastfeeding.

"Noise, blood and adrenalin, pressure, excitement and money-Tooth and Nail gives the reader a ringside seat alongside a young doctor as she treats injured boxers in a succession of brutal professional bouts. Linda Dahl is one of those rare writers who, like the fighters she cares for, has strength and style, grit and grace."--Judy Melinek, M.D., New York Times bestselling co-author with T.J. Mitchell of Working Stiff

"In describing in vivid detail the most violent of human sports, Dr Linda Dahl exposes her life of violence-in her family, in her surgical training, and in doctoring New York's elite-and how she learned, from the most unlikely of sources within and outside of the boxing ring, to transform herself from observer and willing victim of violence towards self-awareness, self-confidence, and mastery of her craft. Well-written, compelling, and revealing, Tooth and Nail provides unvarnished insights about power, sexuality, professional identity, and personal transformation-in the ring and in the clinic."-Ronald Epstein, M.D., author of Attending

“The human face was not built to be punched, but if you’re a boxer, that’s unavoidable—and you’re going to need some first-rate doctoring to put you back together as the need arises. Most of us don’t think much about the work fight doctors do, which is why we’re fortunate that Linda D. Dahl, the rare female M.D. to work the professional fight circuit, has written this smart, funny, poignant account of what she saw and learned in locker rooms, gyms and on the ringsides of bouts. It’s a tale of medicine and feminism and quirky characters in dramatic settings. And it’s one that may make you look at boxing in a new way. “I felt raw and alive,” Dahl writes about her emotions after working a fight. “This violence didn’t seem wrong. It seemed honest. It gave these men an outlet I didn’t have...” Love boxing or hate boxing, you will tumble for this book.—Jeffrey Kluger, author of Apollo 13 and Apollo 8

“It’s strange: I hate boxing but I love this book. Dahl’s tale of identity, femininity and power shines brightly as proof that inspiration and mentorship can spring from the unlikeliest of sources. I rooted for her every step along the way and, at the end, had to applaud her for pioneering an odd but compelling genre of memoir that I can only describe as ‘grit-glam.’”—Katrina Firlik, M.D., author of Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside