Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table

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Use visual signs (pictures, sign language, logos, words) and concrete examples or materials to present ideas, concepts, steps, etc. This book shines a light on how harsh the "postcode lottery" can be. Westaby raised charitable funds to help patients in his Oxford hospital and he also had the expertise there, something a lot of hospitals just don't have, not through any fault of their own. Despite Oxford being a centre of excellence for heart surgery, they were not a transplant centre and therefore they got no NHS funding for the very pumps Westaby had trailblazed. He might be able to fix you, but the device he needed just wasn't always available. 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.”

Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of 9780008196769: Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of

The first few chapters cover Westaby’s childhood, inspiration and medical training. Born in the post-war baby boom years he decided young that he wished to be a heart surgeon after watching a television programme, ‘Your Life in Their Hands’, in which American surgeons were able to close a hole in a patient’s heart thanks to the newly created heart-lung machine. Westaby gained entrance to a local grammar school and from there worked towards his dream of medical school. As a teenager he took menial jobs at a hospital, learning as much as he could through observation. His years of medical training at Charing Cross and the Royal Brompton in London brought him to his first surgeries, where he learned that a certain arrogance is necessary for a successful outcome. A surgeon must believe in their own abilities if they are to innovate and thereby save more lives. When a patient is cut open on an operating table the surgeons cannot know exactly what problems they will be required to deal with. A brilliant, thought provoking memoir chronicling renowned heart surgeon Westaby as he details his life and career. Starting from humble beginnings, the author challenges the perception that only public schoolboys get to be surgeons. They may have trouble speaking clearly, may stutter, or may leave out parts of words. They may also have problems understanding other people’s social cues, such as tone of voice or specific types of body language. The heart is wondrous in its design. It beats more than 60 times per minute, 31m times a year, “contraction and relaxation… narrowing, twisting and shortening… a veritable Argentine tango”. Fragile X syndrome and its associated conditions are caused by changes (mutations) in the FMR1 gene found on the X chromosome. This mutation affects how the body makes a protein called FMRP. The mutation causes the body to make only a little bit or none of the protein, which can cause the symptoms of Fragile X.Westaby and his team performed Peter Houghton's heart operation in June 2000, implanting a Jarvik 7 artificial left ventricular assist device, a turbine pump. Peter Houghton (1938–2007) became the longest living person with an electrical heart pump in the world. [2] [3] Because prenatal testing involves some risk to the mother and fetus, if you or a family member is considering prenatal testing for Fragile X, discuss all the risks and benefits with your healthcare provider.

Stephen Westaby on Why He Wrote Fragile Live - Waterstones

Fragile X results from a change or mutation in the Fragile X Messenger Ribonucleoprotein 1 ( FMR1) gene, which is found on the X chromosome. The gene normally makes a protein, called FMRP, that is important for creating and maintaining connections between cells in the brain and nervous system. The mutation causes the body to make only a little bit or none of the protein, which often causes the symptoms of Fragile X. 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. 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.The size of the mutation. Some people have a smaller mutation (a lower number of repeats) in their FMR1 gene, while others have big mutations (a large number of repeats) in the gene. If the mutation is small, the body may be able to make some of the protein. Having the protein available makes the symptoms milder.