Some books educate. Others inspire. A rare few manage to do both while also pulling readers into an experience so intense that it feels almost impossible to put down. Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit is one of those rare memoirs.
Written by Craig H. Collison, M.D., this deeply personal medical account explores what happens when a physician, confident in science and training, suddenly finds himself fighting for his own life. The memoir centers on Craig’s devastating encounter with necrotizing fasciitis, a rapidly spreading infection often referred to as “flesh-eating bacteria.” While the term is widely known, the reality behind it is far more frightening than most people imagine.
This book is not built on exaggeration. It is built on truth. It carries the weight of real surgeries, real suffering, and real uncertainty. Yet it also carries something else, something just as powerful: hope.
A Crisis That Arrived Without Warning
Craig’s journey begins during the final stretch of his residency training, a time when many doctors are exhausted yet determined, focused on completing the long road to becoming fully established in medicine. He undergoes what should have been a straightforward surgery to remove a lipoma. For most people, that type of procedure is uneventful.
For Craig, it became the doorway into a nightmare.
The surgical site became infected, and the infection progressed aggressively. What followed was a diagnosis that no one wants to hear, especially not a doctor who understands exactly what it can do. Necrotizing fasciitis does not wait. It spreads quickly, destroying tissue and overwhelming the body. Time becomes the enemy, and survival depends on swift action.
Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit documents this unfolding crisis with vivid clarity. Craig provides a day-by-day narrative of emergency surgeries, intensive care, organ failure, and prolonged hospitalization. The medical detail is strong enough to satisfy curious readers, yet the writing remains accessible. It never feels like a textbook. It feels like a life being held together by fragile threads.
The Unique Perspective of Doctor and Patient
What makes this memoir especially compelling is Craig’s position in the story. He is not only the one suffering. He is also someone who spent years learning how to treat suffering. That dual viewpoint creates a rare tension throughout the book.
Craig understands the clinical side of his illness. He knows the medical terminology, the risks, the outcomes that often happen when the body is pushed to the edge. Yet when he becomes the patient, that knowledge offers no protection from fear.
Readers get an inside look at how it feels when the hospital room becomes your world. There is the discomfort of losing independence. There is the emotional exhaustion of constant procedures. There is the humbling realization that even a trained physician must place full trust in the hands of others.
At the same time, Craig highlights the extraordinary role of modern medicine and compassionate care. His story becomes a tribute to medical teams who work under intense pressure, making life-saving decisions in moments that can never be repeated.
His writing does not treat healthcare workers as background characters. It shows them as vital forces in the battle, people whose skill and dedication shape the outcome.
A Family’s Strength Captured in Real Time
One of the most memorable aspects of Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit is its emotional depth, which is strengthened by bedside journal entries written by Craig’s wife, family, and friends. These entries are not polished reflections written years later. They are raw, immediate snapshots of what people felt while watching him fight for survival.
Those words bring the reader into the waiting rooms, the quiet hospital nights, and the crushing uncertainty of each new medical update. They reveal the fear that families often carry silently. They also reveal the courage that shows up when there is no other option.
Michelle’s presence is especially moving. Through her journal reflections, she becomes a central voice in the story. Her love is steady, and her resilience becomes a major theme. The reader can feel the emotional weight she carries, yet also the determination she refuses to let go of.
The memoir also highlights how friends and community surrounded the family. Meals, prayers, visits, and encouragement become part of the survival story. Craig shows that healing is rarely only physical. It is emotional, relational, and deeply human.
Faith, Perseverance, and the Spirit That Refused to Break
Beyond its medical intensity, Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit is rooted in spiritual reflection. Biblical insights are woven into the narrative, offering comfort and meaning during moments that might otherwise feel unbearable. Craig’s faith is not presented as a simple solution. It is presented as a lifeline, something held onto tightly when the future felt uncertain.
The memoir speaks to perseverance in a way that feels genuine. Craig does not pretend the journey was easy. He does not skip over the darkness. Still, the story consistently returns to the idea that even when the body is damaged, the spirit can remain strong.
A meaningful feature of the book is its patient- and family-focused appendix. This section adds another layer of purpose, making the memoir useful not only as a story but also as a resource for those walking through critical illness themselves.
About Craig H. Collison, M.D.
Craig grew up in central Pennsylvania and graduated from State College High School. He earned an engineering degree from Penn State University before attending medical school at Wake Forest University. He later completed Pediatrics training at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, part of Case Western Reserve University.
After months of hospitalization and recovery, Craig returned home with his family and began working as a general Pediatrician with Centre Medical and Surgical Associates and Mount Nittany Medical Center, now part of the Mount Nittany Health System. He later moved his practice to Mount Nittany Physician Group – Penns Valley to better serve families closer to home.
Craig lives with his wife Michelle, their children Taylor, Chase, Caroline, and Lydia, and their dogs Penny and Josie in “The Simon Pickel House,” an 1833 stone home in Madisonburg.
Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit is available on Amazon, and readers can explore more about Craig’s work through his website at drcraigcollisonbooks.com.
We had the privilege of interviewing the author. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Hi, thank you so much for joining us today! Please share about yourself with our readers.
My name is Craig Collison, MD, and I am a physician, board-certified in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. I worked for a multi-specialty physician group doing inpatient and outpatient Pediatrics for 21 years, and for the last 5 years, I have worked as a Medical Director for Optum, as well as some other medical directorships. I live in Pennsylvania and South Carolina with my wife, Michelle. We have four children who are all grown and out of the house now. We had one son get married last year, and this year we have a son and a daughter both getting married, so this is a special time for our family.
Please tell us about your journey.
While I was finishing my pediatrics residency in the year 2000, I had a minor surgery that was infected with flesh-eating bacteria. With less than a 10% chance of survival, I was able to recover, but not without tremendous physical and emotional scars for me as well as my young family. Two and a half months in the hospital and 10+ surgeries were filled with pain and suffering, but our family, friends, incredible doctors and nurses, and our faith were able to bring us through. Though delayed, I was able to finish my training program and start my career, while learning so much as the doctor-turned-patient.
Please share about your book.
Tattered Flesh, Resilient Spirit is our personal story, as I survived and endured this infection with flesh-eating bacteria. It combines my insight as the patient and physician, as well as the raw emotions told through journal entries by my wife, Michelle, and others from during the ordeal. On top of everything else, Michelle was 6 months pregnant at the time with a two and four year old at home, and we had already sold our house, so in the midst of everything going on with me in the hospital, she and our family and friends had to find a new place to stay even after most of our belongings were moved to another state. Along with the drama of this horrific time, I explore our faith, from both of our perspectives, and how it was tested to the limits. This story is not sugar-coated, but an intense and real perspective on critical illness and how it affects the patient as well as the family and friends that go through it with them. I am honest about the questioning and testing of my faith, as my body was stressed to the breaking point, and how I came to grips with the scars and changes that I would have to live with for the rest of my life.
What strategies helped you become successful in your journey?
Michelle and I have both said that we don’t know how we could have survived this time without faith, as well as our amazing family and friends. Having that hope in a Savior was so important for us when it appeared that all other hope was gone.
Any message for our readers?
This story was meant to be shared, and we look forward to sharing it with all the readers. Putting the book together was truly the best therapy for me as I worked my way back through the illness, through the questioning and disappointments, to the acceptance and thankfulness for surviving something that no one would want to go through. This story is for all those going through a medical illness of their own or in a family member. This story is for all healthcare workers and demonstrates the incredible challenges that enduring an illness or staying in the intensive care unit brings to people, hopefully increasing their empathy towards their patients. This story is for those who have faith and for those who question it. Thank you to all those interested in sharing the ups and downs of this challenging time and our ultimate triumph over this terrible illness.
Thank you so much, Craig, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
Knowledge grows when shared. Please Pass it on!
Discover more from Paxjones
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.