Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table

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Chroniclers such as Westaby and Wharton are much needed to remind us of the ethical dilemmas that have yet to be resolved, the value of vocation and why, for all its flaws, the NHS is a public service that must not be allowed to die.

Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of 9780008196769: Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of

Placement decisions should be based on each child’s needs and abilities. The Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) I loved this book. It's interesting, full of emotion, failure but also triumph, and you can really understand the author's passion for his profession. Of course, being on call and having such an amazing career has meant aspects of his personal life have inevitably suffered; Stephen says at one point "While I spent many hours striving to save other people’s children... I never spent enough time with my own.” An incredible memoir from one of the world’s most eminent heart surgeons and some of the most remarkable and poignant cases he’s worked on. Like many UK readers, I read Henry Marsh's remarkable "Do No Harm". That book is a wondrous eye-opener; "Fragile Lives" is a gut-wrenching adrenaline rush, written by another member of the retired-eminent-surgeon club, Stephen Westaby.

Confidence is good. Too much confidence is just plain arrogant and quite frankly dangerous when you work in the medical field. One of those cases where I was in a funk and just going through OverDrive app, trying to find something different to listen to, that would lift me out of the fog and de-stress me.

Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on

Some children with Fragile X begin talking later than typically developing children. Most will talk eventually, but a few might stay nonverbal throughout their lives. This chart is meant for reference ONLY and should not take the place of a healthcare provider’s advice. Discuss any questions about medication with a healthcare provider. Symptom

Masterfully written and when Open Heart is recited, it rolls off the tongue like prose in its melliferous rhythm narrated by one of the world's leading heart surgeons. If you happen to favor Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal or legendary Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm you have found a read on the same level with added gore and "blut” pooling. Slightly disappointed he didn't narrate it himself... only because it is always more interesting (to me anyway) to hear the writer's voice.. but not everyone is meant to be a narrator of audiobooks *shrugs* The narrator here was very good, pleasant voice and I have a crush on his accent haha. Julie is alive today, as is Kirsty, operated on as a six-month-old baby, with Westaby innovating as he cuts, and learning in both cases that, given a chance, the heart can heal itself: a groundbreaking discovery. Like Henry Marsh, Westaby has become disgruntled with an NHS bogged down in bureaucracy. It's only briefly mentioned at the end, but you can sense his frustration with the system in some of the cases. Who thinks it makes sense to send senior surgeons on courses to learn CPR? And the death list! Some government idiot decided to name and shame surgeons who have deaths on their operating tables. Seriously ill people will die sometimes. This just deters surgeons from taking risks, risks that could save lives. Most people given a chance of a slow and painful death or a risky surgery, would rather have the surgery. Instead they are filled with drugs and sent home to die. It's amazing how far medicine has come in just a few generations. Who would have thought artificial hearts can and do work. The ability for a truly rested heart to regenerate is eye-opening and makes you wonder why we can't be doing this for more people.

Fragile Lives | Save Mothers and Babies Fragile Lives | Save Mothers and Babies

You do have to concentrate. There’s a lot of new vocabulary to get used to, but as it’s used repeatedly, it soon becomes familiar. Perdicardium. Electrocautery. Cardioplegia. Perfusion. I sometimes struggled to visualise exactly what Westaby was doing to the heart in the various operations followed in the book. But I got the gist, and I suspect no matter how many books by surgeons I might read in my life, there will always be a magical mystery to the art. heart surgery might become an everyday occurrence for me, but for the patient and their relatives it is once in a lifetime, and absolutely terrifying. Treat them kindly. Most Interesting Part of the Book Javic 2000: The First Lifetime-Use Patient". Jarvik Heart, Inc. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010 . Retrieved 4 January 2008. Marsh and Westaby are likely the last of the pioneering NHS surgeons. Politicians would rather create lists and targets and 7 day GPs that no one has asked for. Why would any skilled doctor want to work in an environment where they are prevented from doing what's best for their patients? One cannot help but be captivated by the effort to remove a recurrent myxoma from a patient’s heart, for five times over ten years. Or a “last-gasp attempt” when everyone else had given up on a six-month old baby with a rare congenital anomaly. A headstrong attitude and the refusal to admit defeat is what differentiated Westaby from the average surgeon.

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