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.)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Tue 16 Jul 2019 11:06GMT91热爆 World Service
- Tue 16 Jul 2019 15:06GMT91热爆 World Service Australasia
- Tue 16 Jul 2019 17:06GMT91热爆 World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, South Asia & West and Central Africa
- Tue 16 Jul 2019 20:06GMT91热爆 World Service South Asia
- Wed 17 Jul 2019 02:06GMT91热爆 World Service UK DAB/Freeview
- Wed 17 Jul 2019 03:06GMT91热爆 World Service Americas and the Caribbean, Online, Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only