The Knife’s Edge: The Heart and Mind of a Cardiac Surgeon

Product Information

With his battle cry of “bugger protocol” and his renaming of medical directors as “the Stasi”, Westaby comes across as the bloke you’d want on your side in the fight to stay alive.’ Guardian Books of the Year English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Danish English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Vietnamese The letter H can be useful to create some two-letter words but there are some longer, high scoring words too. Here are some examples. Although the author repeats throughout the book how surgeons cannot inherently allow themselves to feel empathy for their patients (or they would never get past their first death), there are plenty of examples whereby the authors obvious care for his patient is shown. He describes in details the challenges he faced in tough cardiac surgery cases especially paediatric patients. He took chances, travelled to learn and teach, all very fascinating.

knife-edge - Idioms by The Free Dictionary On a knife-edge - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

I am a person who loves perfection though it's really not possible to gain perfection all the time but at least you can try. Being a doctor, can never be easy and I mean it though I am not but I have seen them struggling and trying to cope up. Stephen Westaby, is one of them whom I got to know a much more better through this book. I think it must be very hard to work in operation theatres, scrubs and masks all around the increasing tension, the on time decision making, success, failure and the sound of the ECG machine. This book is more or less a memoir and we can't say a personal one but definitely it focuses on his own career of 35 years as a cardiac surgeon. Stephen Westaby describes what all qualities a Good Surgeon should possess in multiple parts in this book. Well,this one is quite fascinating...So Prof Westaby says that a head injury has rewired his brain and has undergone a complete personality change....He became this very bold,very brave and free from self doubt or fear which is almost everything a surgeon needs,right?.... It's like a boon from God or a divine intervention.Right off the bat, we made an error in route finding that would haunt us for the rest of the morning. We began to traverse across the ridge but got hung up for a brief moment where the trail seemed to disappear. We pondered our options for a few minutes, but chose the path we had seen a climbing team take in front of us. This trail meant we would continue with class III-IV climbing for most of the morning, which was slow but lots of fun.

The Knife’s Edge: The Heart and Mind of a Cardiac Surgeon by

Professor Westaby operated on my son when he was 12 years old. He saved my sons life as he was extremely poorly with a heart condition called Severe Aortic Stenosis. It was a really difficult time for my son and all of us but I am so very grateful to this amazing man. He personally rang me after my sons operation to tell me that it had been a success and that my son was going to be ok, the relief was immense. Wow! That was some brave mountaineering! I don’t think I could scramble that edge like you did. Way to go! The traverse across Knife Edge is relatively tough and requires focus and agility. Some spots are as narrow as four feet, with 2,000-foot drops on either side. Proper equipment, weather preparedness, and good decision-making are necessities. This books give me insights on how it will be once you graduated medical school. What to expect from the hospital and managements , the empathy towards families waiting for their child's surgery , the drama in between and everything happened inside the hospital. Inching across a mile of loose boulders in pursuit of a beautiful summit is an experience worth having.Like Westaby's last book, this one also focuses on his successful portfolio but adds some personal events to explain why he became such a triumphant and arrogant man. He believes that these kinds of characters help him in his career, and what he discards such as self-doubt, compassion and modesty play a useless role in surgeons' work. He uses his wonderful achievement to enhance credibility, however, what he tries to escape can not be ignored: surgeons are not gods, they have many moments of failure and powerlessness. What about these moments? The only thing surgeons can do is sympathy and comfort, don't forget the saying"To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve Often, To Comfort Always". 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.