Impatient and anxious I watched the transverse slices of the scan appear on the computer monitor, gradually working their way up towards where I had been operating. The scan showed a huge haemorrhage deep in her brain, on the side of the operation although slightly separate from it. It was clearly both inoperable and fatal – a post-operative intracerebral haemorrhage, a ‘rare but recognized’ complication of such surgery. I picked up the phone in the control room and rang her husband. ‘I’m afraid I have rather bad news for you…’ I said.
