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99 reviews for:
Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table
Stephen Westaby
4.19 AVERAGE
99 reviews for:
Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table
Stephen Westaby
4.19 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
As a heart patient myself I found this just fascinating. What a remarkable man and surgeon.
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
informative
relaxing
fast-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
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I really, really enjoyed this memoir - I fancied something that would make a change from all the fiction I usually read, and this turned out to be the perfect pick.
It's full of fascinating stories, both from Professor Stephen Westaby himself as he takes us through some of the key operations in his career, but there's also a lot focusing on the people going under Westaby's knife and how they felt, what led to them needing surgery (including back stories) and how they fared afterwards. It's a real rollercoaster of highs and lows, with some great results and some which made me feel so sad. I suppose that's all part of operating on something as important as the human heart though! It did make me think, I don't imagine I could ever deal with even half the pressure surgeons are always under, and all the emotions from not just the patients themselves but their partners, friends and families too! What a lot of pressure!
The way the book is written allows someone who is certainly not scientific-minded - ie. me - to understand (and I use the word 'understand' in a loosest possible way) what Stephen Westaby and his team doing and why... (sort of!) It's not such complex language that you can't follow it, and Westaby explains things in a way that makes it a lot clearer and accessible to everyone.
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.”
I have to admit I felt a bit woozy reading some quite in-depth surgery scenes (not great with lots of blood) but regardless of my squeamishness I found the details fascinating! I also found the details about the NHS so interesting, as his career starts back in the 80's and carries on through to the present day. The NHS is something I'm so passionate about, and there's a very interesting quote towards the end of the book which really makes you think about the system today:
From being a working class boy from Scunthorpe to operating on some of the most high profile cases of heart surgery the world has seen, I felt like I was along with Stephen for the journey - and what a journey! Highly recommended.
* Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review. *
I really, really enjoyed this memoir - I fancied something that would make a change from all the fiction I usually read, and this turned out to be the perfect pick.
It's full of fascinating stories, both from Professor Stephen Westaby himself as he takes us through some of the key operations in his career, but there's also a lot focusing on the people going under Westaby's knife and how they felt, what led to them needing surgery (including back stories) and how they fared afterwards. It's a real rollercoaster of highs and lows, with some great results and some which made me feel so sad. I suppose that's all part of operating on something as important as the human heart though! It did make me think, I don't imagine I could ever deal with even half the pressure surgeons are always under, and all the emotions from not just the patients themselves but their partners, friends and families too! What a lot of pressure!
The way the book is written allows someone who is certainly not scientific-minded - ie. me - to understand (and I use the word 'understand' in a loosest possible way) what Stephen Westaby and his team doing and why... (sort of!) It's not such complex language that you can't follow it, and Westaby explains things in a way that makes it a lot clearer and accessible to everyone.
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.”
I have to admit I felt a bit woozy reading some quite in-depth surgery scenes (not great with lots of blood) but regardless of my squeamishness I found the details fascinating! I also found the details about the NHS so interesting, as his career starts back in the 80's and carries on through to the present day. The NHS is something I'm so passionate about, and there's a very interesting quote towards the end of the book which really makes you think about the system today:
"So what happened to heart surgery in the UK? After multiple hospital scandals the NHS in England decided to publish individual surgeons’ death rates. Now no one wants to be a heart surgeon."
From being a working class boy from Scunthorpe to operating on some of the most high profile cases of heart surgery the world has seen, I felt like I was along with Stephen for the journey - and what a journey! Highly recommended.
* Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review. *