Professor Stephen Westaby

The balance between life and death is so delicate; the heart surgeon walks that rope between the two. At the forefront of pioneering cardiac technology, Professor Steve Westaby has seen it all. This astounding memoir details some of his most remarkable cases, such as ‘the pulseless man,’ a woman who lived the nightmare of locked-in syndrome after surgery and a man whose life was powered by a battery for eight years.

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. This is his intimate and compelling exploration into the unique psyche of the heart surgeon, by one of the profession’s most eminent figures.