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Fragile Lives
Fragile Lives | Stephen Westaby
4 posts | 6 read | 4 to read
Grim Reaper sits on the heart surgeon's shoulder. A slip of the hand and life ebbs away. The balance between life and death is so delicate, and the heart surgeon walks that rope between the two. But in the operating room there is no time for such contemplation or philosophy. It is blood, gore, rib retractors and pumping the vital organ with your bare hand to squeeze the life back into it. You must stitch holes while the muscle pumps away - you are a mechanic fixing a car while it speeds down the motorway at 70mph. Heart surgery is certainly not for the faint hearted. Professor Steve Westby took all the chances, ignored all the rules and pushed the boundaries to make heart surgery what it is today. At the forefront of pioneering cardiac technology, and having carried out 11,000 heart operations over his career, Steve has seen it all. In his astounding memoir Steve details some of his most remarkable cases, such as 'the pulseless man', a tiny baby who silently suffered multiple heart attacks, a woman who lived the nightmare of locked-in syndrome after surgery, and a man whose life was powered by a battery for eight years. FRAGILE LIVES offers an exceptional insight into the fast-paced and exhilarating world of heart surgery and how it feels to hold someone's life in your hand.
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LostInSpace
Fragile Lives | Stephen Westaby
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This is the second book I‘ve read by this author and both times I‘ve been left touched.

He has gone above and beyond, risking his job and reputation to take on patients who are essentially dead or dying and bring them back from the brink.

Of course he has had patients die, the one that touched me the most was the young African child and mother, which was a terribly sad outcome and you can tell this surgeon carries these cases with him daily.

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rakeshacharya
Fragile Lives | Stephen Westaby
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rakeshacharya
Fragile Lives | Stephen Westaby
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I really enjoyed reading this book.

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IReadThereforeIBlog
Fragile Lives | Stephen Westaby
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Professor Stephen Westaby is one of the world's foremost heart surgeons and a pioneer in the use of mechanical hearts and stem cell research in heart tissue repair and in this moving and fascinating medical memoir (illustrated by Dee McLean), he describes how his grandfather's death and a TV documentary inspired him into the profession and sets out some of the cases that have had the biggest impact on him professionally and emotionally.