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The heart of a heart surgeon

Professor Stephen Westaby has operated on more than 12,000 hearts and he estimates he's saved 97% of them.

Heart surgeon Stephen Westaby has saved thousands of patients throughout his 40 year career but it鈥檚 the deaths that stick with him. As a teenager he was smart but felt he wasn't bold enough to make the split-second life and death decisions required of a surgeon. It wasn鈥檛 until medical school when a rugby accident damaged the part of his brain that controls inhibition and risk-taking, that Professor Westaby overcame his shyness. He would become famous for complex paediatric surgeries and would pioneer the use of a small artificial heart.

Novelist Sulaiman Addonia was born in Eritrea during its struggle for independence from Ethiopia and his family fled when soldiers came to his village and massacred hundreds of people. After moving from a refugee camp to Saudi Arabia, Sulaiman discovered a secret library of banned books that opened his eyes to the world.

(Image: Stephen Westaby. Photo courtesy of Stephen Westaby.)

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Wed 17 Jul 2019 03:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 16 Jul 2019 11:06GMT
  • Tue 16 Jul 2019 15:06GMT
  • Tue 16 Jul 2019 17:06GMT
  • Tue 16 Jul 2019 20:06GMT
  • Wed 17 Jul 2019 02:06GMT
  • Wed 17 Jul 2019 03:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

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