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

by Stephen Westaby

We must learn from failure and try to do better the next time. But to indulge in sorrow or regret brings unsustainable misery.

Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.

This is cardiac surgery. Another day at the office for me, the end of the world for her.

What a fucking job.

We accepted that this ‘lifetime’ had been short, but all life is precious. Ask cancer patients about that.

There has to be a reason for everything.

Some would suggest that empathy is the key to being a good doctor, the ‘key to compassionate care’, whatever that means. But if we really considered the enormity and sadness of every tragedy played out in this unit we’d all drown.