I read this pretty much in one sitting - an incredibly emotional, informative and really very addictive memoir here from Stephen Westaby, I now know more about the human heart than I ever could imagine that I would.

A true trailblazer but oddly for a man of this nature and genius not at all egotistical, he came across brilliantly and all the stories he told, all the people he saved and the ones he couldn't will stay with me for a long long time.

Spanning many years and many innovations, "Fragile Hearts" puts life into huge perspective - just how much we rely on the heart to function well was something I had little understanding of, now I am literally going to be thankful for every beat. Doctors are the unsung heroes sometimes, this is the second medical memoir I've read (the brilliant "Do No Harm" from Henry Marsh being the other, which does for the brain what Dr Westaby does for the heart here and I can also highly recommend) and it is a fascinating world that we both see and don't see.

I'm inclined to read more like this. I was utterly enthralled first page to last.

I'm not usually drawn to biographies, but this one interested me. An absorbing and provoking read, it captured my attention long into the night.
'Fragile Lives', documents a surgeon's successful career, through a detailed description of keynote cases during a pioneering time for heart surgery. The medical terms are integral to the book, but they are understandable, and if you're confused there is a glossary at the back.
This is a candid, passionate memoir. Every chapter demonstrates the surgeon's dedication to his work, compassion for his patients and understandable frustrations with a system that focuses purely on outcomes rather than the quality of life.
The real-life characters of this book are complex and memorable, I recalled some of the groundbreaking cases that became front page news, and it is fascinating to read the stories behind the headlines.
For me, though it is the unknown cases, those that shaped this man's career and life that are the most poignant. Even though, as a surgeon he appreciates the necessity of objectivity and not getting personally involved with his patients'lives, these cases prove that it's not always possible to stand on the sidelines and sometimes you have to risk your own peace of mind for the greater good.
This story is as captivating as any fictional tale. The unpredictable twists and turns, vivid characters and the life and death action will keep you reading until the last word.
I received a copy of this book from Harper Collins UK via NetGalley in return for an honest 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.

What a wonderful book giving a realistic picture of some aspects of a cardiac surgeon’s life and the decisions they have to make.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, as it reminded me of my time working in a busy open heart surgery unit.

This was an interesting and fascination read . I thought it may have been complicated written from a surgeons prospective using medical terms but the author made it so interesting I devoured this book in two days.
Being a nurse I loved it , but it would also appeal to anyone with an interest in the medical world.
Makes you think about how precious life really is.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the author as protagonist to be a fascinating and engaging character who brought the highs and lows of working as a pioneering heart surgeon, vividly to life. I became so involved that - after having read the book - I Googled the author and watched several video clips so that I could get to know him better, so to speak. A particularly interesting clip was one of a reunion between him and a young woman whose life he had saved as a baby - with her clinically dead on the operating table, he went back in having walked away, to have one more go at her broken heart. Rivetting. I also found the technical descriptions of the mechanics of the heart and the devices to fix it when it goes wrong, interesting.

Sorry i did not enjoy this book. I found it very dense with biological facts and boring because of this, even though I have a degree in human biology !

I love memoirs, and I thought that Stephen Westaby’s account of his career as a heart surgeon was absolutely fascinating. I know absolutely nothing about heart problems or any kind of surgery, and this memoir was a detailed insight into both of these aspects of Westaby’s career.
What I liked the most: the way the memoir was divided into short stories about each of Westaby’s most important/life-changing/career-changing patients. Stephen was obviously an incredible surgeon, and this could be seen not only in the care he took over his job but also the details he has remembered about each patient. The way the memoir was split in this way also made it easier to read – like a series of short stories.
What I liked the least: Although the amount of detail included about each of the specific problems and the operations was fascinating and truly added to my realisation of just how impressive heart surgeons are, it was quite overwhelming at times and I often found myself skimming the science in favour of the focus on the people.
Overall: a great book, educational and emotional. If possible, I now have even more respect for those who go into a career in heart surgery.

This book is a bit like Grey's Anatomy with each chapter and case study emotionally gripping and heart wrenching (pun not intended). Westaby is humble in his arrogance and self-effacing in his success. He knows exactly what he is all about and how to get the story out without getting lost in the details. This last part is hugely important because he also doesn't scrimp on the technical language and bits and pieces of the body that gets sawed through and dropped and battered while being fixed and occasionally failed.

He has an incredible way of placing things in their context while never knowingly telling a straightforward story. I never knew which of the patients was going to die and the point he was making was that heart surgeons don't always know either.

This gripping account of heart surgery kept me up for three nights in a row and I got through a lot of tissues. His stories make for an amazing read and I hope that now he has retired (a bit) he will find time to write more. Well, to write more for the general public. He is already well-published having written the chapter on Ballistic Injuries of the Chest for the British military's textbook of emergency medicine.

He asks the political questions too and we alongside him watch young healthy people die because of the underfunding of the NHS and political decisions made away from the doctors. He asks "Should a First World health-care system use modern technology to prolong life? Or should it let young heart failure patients die miserably like in the Third World?' He has travelled and operated and revolutionised heart surgery and brought in artificial hearts all around the world. He knows the effects.

A lot of the work he writes about was funded through charity and this is a reflection on neoliberalism and not just the latest Conservative (plus one) government.

No surprise that for a man this accomplished he has done an excellent work in conveying it in a gripping and emotional way, even though he points out that it's important for surgeons not to stress and not to get too involved with their patients. His humanity shines through despite that.

Stephen Westaby grew up on a Scunthorpe council estate and decided to become a heart surgeon at an early age after watching American surgeons performing a hole-in-the-heart operation on tv. The grim deaths of his grandparents, whose symptoms and course of illness were unable to be mitigated by medicine acted as a further spur to a career in medicine.

What is striking about 'Fragile Lives' is how Westaby becomes more unable to detach from the messier, human emotions which all patients- and their care team- experience. As he grows older and more experienced, his frustration with the NHS behemoth and the politics it is subject to, intensifies. We start to gain a sense of the emotional toll placed on clinical staff.

I highly recommend this addition to the canon of medical memoirs.