Fragile Lives Export

Westaby, Stephen

HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd

Knife's Edge

An intimate and compelling exploration into the unique psyche of the heart surgeon, by one of the profession’s most eminent figures. 
Although Professor Stephen Westaby was born with the necessary coordination and manual dexterity, it was a head trauma sustained during university that gifted him the qualities of an exceptional heart surgeon: qualities that are frequently associated with psychopathy. His thirty-five-year career has been characterised by fearlessness and ruthless ambition; leaving empathy at the hospital door as thousands of patients put their lives in his hands. 
For heart surgeons, the inevitable cost of failure is death and in The Knife’s Edge, Westaby reflects on the unique mindset of those who are drawn to this exhilarating and often tragic profession. We discover the pioneers who grasped opportunities and took chances to drive innovation and save lives. Often difficult, uninhibited and fearless, theirs is a field constantly threatened by the risk of public failure. 
Like those before him, Westaby refuses to draw the line in his search of a lifetime solution to problems of the heart. His determination is unerring – a steadfastness underpinned by his unusual mind. But as we glimpse into the future of cardiac surgery, for all its remarkable scientific advancement, one question remains: within the confines of socialised medical healthcare systems, how can heart surgeons – individuals often hardwired with avoidance of self-doubt, a penchant for glory and a flagrant disregard for authority – truly flourish?

The Knife’s Edge

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mudlark

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.

Open Heart: A Cardiac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Basic Books

This book provides the first authoritative account of the use of stentless bioprostheses in cardiac surgery.The concept of the stentless heart valve was borne from the observation of natural heart valves in the operating theatre. Many surgeons now believe that the porcine stentless bioprosthesis offers significant advantages over the traditional stented valve, including improved durability (minimum calcification, no tears), biocompatability and automatic ventricular function preservation.These issues, along with the suitability of the various valves now available are discussed in full by leading experts in the field.The text is divided into three main sections; historical background, stentless valve technology and clinical experience. Each chapter is fully referenced and complemented by photographs and operative line illustrations, the majority of which are in full colour.

Stentless Bioprosthesis (H)

Science & Math

Piwnica, Professor Armand

Physics

Routledge

This text is divided into seven sections covering the applications, uses, effects and designs of stentless bioprostheses. The three opening chapters describe the paediatric applications of stentless bioprostheses, with reference to aortic valve replacement and right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction Chapters in the second section discuss the use of stentless bioprostheses in the mitral position. The following two sections discuss different aspects of the clinical outcomes of stentless bioprostheses and the fifth section has seven chapters on haemodynamics and left ventricular function. The final sections cover the topics of implantation techniques and the design and construction of stentless bioprostheses. The second edition is updated and enhanced and is Illustrated in full colour.

Stentless Bioprostheses

Medical Books

David, Tirone E

Huysmans, Hans A

Medicine

CRC-Press

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. The text follows a set pattern, describing the historical background to each new procedure, facsimilies of the original articles, bibliography of the main clinicians, and a commentary putting each development into its historical context.

Landmarks In Cardiac Surgery

Bosher, Cecil

Biological Sciences

The Trauma Chronicles

'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 foremost 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.

Arts & Literature

Mensch Publishing

This account of the heroic efforts to operate meaningfully within the deformed heart constitutes one of the greatest stories ever told. The surgeons were deemed psychopaths, the body count enormous. Yet with persistence and innovation those surgeons and their heart-lung machines ultimately triumphed. Professor Stephen Westaby trained with, then worked alongside, these pioneers on both sides of the Atlantic allowing him to write the most accurate, most exclusive, most insightful history of this taxing specialty.

Surgeons, Saints and Psychopaths: The Epic History of Heart Surgery

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