Stephen Westaby Bücher

An intimate exploration into the psyche of a heart surgeon by one of the profession's leading figures. Professor Stephen Westaby, born with the necessary coordination and manual dexterity, experienced a head trauma during university that endowed him with qualities often linked to psychopathy, essential for an exceptional heart surgeon. His thirty-five-year career has been marked by fearlessness and ruthless ambition, leaving empathy at the hospital door as he undertakes the lives of thousands of patients. In this reflection, Westaby examines the mindset of those drawn to the exhilarating yet tragic world of cardiac surgery, highlighting pioneers who embraced risks to innovate and save lives. This field is fraught with the constant threat of public failure, and like his predecessors, Westaby is relentless in his pursuit of solutions to heart problems. His unwavering determination is supported by his unique mental framework. As we look towards the future of cardiac surgery, despite remarkable advancements, a lingering question remains: within socialized medical systems, how can heart surgeons—often characterized by an avoidance of self-doubt, a desire for glory, and a disregard for authority—truly thrive?

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. 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. In the operating room there is no time for doubt. It is flesh, blood, rib-retractors and pumping the vital organ with your bare hand to squeeze the life back into it. An off-day can have dire consequences - this job has a steep learning curve, and the cost is measured in human life. Cardiac surgery is not for the faint of heart. Professor Stephen Westaby took chances and pushed the boundaries of heart surgery. He saved hundreds of lives over the course of a thirty-five year career and now, in his astounding memoir, Westaby details some of his most remarkable and poignant cases - such as the baby who had suffered multiple heart attacks by six months old, a woman who lived the nightmare of locked-in syndrome, and a man whose life was powered by a battery for eight years. A powerful, important and incredibly moving book, Fragile Lives offers an exceptional insight into the exhilarating and sometimes tragic world of heart surgery, and how it feels to hold someone's life in your hands.

This text, published in the profession's centenary year, traces the history of cardiac surgery from ancient times to the present, detailing clinical developments with facsimilies of the original articles, consent forms from the first heart transplant, newspaper articles, and correspondence.

In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be. With astonishing compassion, he recounts harrowing and sometimes hopeful stories from his operating room: we meet a pulseless man who lives with an electric heart pump, an expecting mother who refuses surgery unless the doctors let her pregnancy reach full term, and a baby who gets a heart transplant-only to die once it's in place. For readers of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal and of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Open Heart offers a soul-baring account of a life spent in constant confrontation with death.

"'Never, never, never give in', Winston Churchill's famous quotation best sums up the life of Stephen Westaby, the world-leading cardiothoracic surgeon. This book chronicles the triumphs and failures of his surgical life, the lives saved and extended, the innovations (such as artificial hearts) he developed, and his research discoveries. Having spent his childhood in the backstreets of a northern steel town, he went on to become one of the world's preeminent heart surgeons. HIs drive for perfection in his profession took him to the world-renowned Harefield Hospital, the foremost heart surgery centre in Birmingham, Alabama, the newly-created Cardiothoracic Centre in Oxford, and then in 2019 in Wuhan he was the first Western doctor to learn about Covid before the virus was identified. Following on from his two earlier best-selling works, Fragile Lives and The Knife's Edge this volume is written with humour and a doctor's reverence for life and his patients. The Trauma Chronicles gives an unmissable insight into the world of one of the greatest living heart surgeons"--Publisher's description

Vzpomínky jednoho z nejvýznamnějších světových kardiochirurgů, který v této knize strhujícím způsobem popisuje nejpozoruhodnější a nejdojemnější případy, na nichž ve své kariéře pracoval. Nabízí výjimečné nahlédnutí do někdy opojného, jindy tragického světa kardiochirurgie a dává tušit, jaké to je, mít v rukou něčí život nebo smrt. Se zatajeným dechem budete číst neuvěřitelné příběhy, jako například osud miminka, které za sebou už v šesti měsících mělo sérii infarktů, či muže „kyborga bez pulzu“, který osm let žil s titanovou krevní pumpou připojenou na externí baterie pomocí zástrčky voperované do lebky. Rovnováha mezi životem a smrtí je nesmírně křehká a kardiochirurg kráčí po laně napjatém mezi nimi. Na operačním sále nemá čas na pochybnosti. Jediný špatný pohyb, a život zmizí v nenávratnu… Profesor Stephen Westaby nejednou posunul hranice kardiochirurgie a v průběhu své pětatřicetileté kariéry zachránil stovky životů. Pracuje v John Radcliffe Hospital ve Velké Británii.