Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Open Heart: A Caridac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table by Stephen Westaby

Yesterday behind me we had blue skies.


In front of me, however, the weather foreshadowed colder things to come.  And this morning we saw the weather kept its promise.

Those of you in the north probably regard the above scene as a pleasant early spring day, but two inches of snow were enough to shut down East Texas.  I had planned to go to the University today and pick up music, but schools at every level are closed.  And yes, I've already seen cars towed and near the high school a truck knocked over a lamp post.  We are so defenseless against inclement weather.

Ah, well.  Enjoy Symphony no. 2 by Alexander Von Zimmlensky while you read my post.






Open Heart: A Cardiac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating TableOpen Heart: A Cardiac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table by Stephen Westaby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Open Heart reads like a fast-paced action adventure movie. Westaby takes us on a brief biographical journey as to how he became interested in heart surgery, his training and then torpedoes straight into different life or death situations which require delicate procedures, his abilities and steely confidence.

We meet a young girl with a genetic heart defect, an old man with congestive heart failure, a pregnant woman who needs surgery but refuses to terminate the life of her unborn baby as well as others. One of the most poignent was his time in Saudi Arabia when he worked on the tiny heart of an infant of a Somalian woman who had been kidnapped and forced into slavery. She had escaped and crossed the desert to save her son. The story is as heart rending as it is amazing because Westaby takes out the baby's heart and puts it back in after mending it.

Here we encounter Westaby's frustration with England's National Health Care system.

"...I had just been appointed in Oxford. So why was I in the desert? Heart operations cost money...the annual budget was gone in five months. So the management closed us down..."

This is a recurring theme in the book. Westaby points out that Health Care in the U.K. may be "free", but it is only available to those the government deems worthwhile saving because there is only so much money to go around. Patients considered too old or too sick were told to go home and die. The majority of Westaby's heart implants were funded through charity, not NHS.

And lest you think they're sending away geriatrics, people in their fifties were considered too old for treatment. Children and people in the twenties were turned down because they were deemed too sick. National Health Care may be fine for normal well-checks and colds and sniffles, but if you need highly specialized care, like a heart transplant, good luck. Hope the government thinks you're worth saving.

Westaby, though British, received training in the United States and he introduced inventions by American doctors, such as a tiny electric heart that circulates the blood for the defective heart inside people. Interestingly, there is no pulse as there is no pumping involved.

All of Westaby's stories are suspenseful because you don't know if his patients are going to make it. Much of what he does is brand new and he is only allowed to try the new technology on patients who are going to die anyway. Some of them get a reprieve, some don't, but the medical advancements are stupendous.

My only complaint and why I did not give the book five stars was the foul language used sporadically through out the book. I mean, come on, you're a brilliant man, couldn't you at least pretend to have a professional grip on the English language? I know what he was doing was extremely stressful, but try to show you possess the vocabulary worthy of your mind, not the vocabulary of an adolescent. Or brain damaged people. My grandmother never swore a word until after her stroke.

That quibble aside, I highly recommend this book. It is not only informative and exciting and fascinating, it is well-written. Westaby, assuming he didn't use a ghost writer-and it doesn't read in the stilted, wooden fashion of a ghost writer-apart from the occasional f-and s-bombs, has superb literary skills.

Finally, people interested in changing our health care system to a socialized form because then "everyone can have health care" should read this book. They might have second thoughts.



View all my reviews

16 comments:

Brian Joseph said...

Though I have not read a medical book in years I find this sort of thing fascinating. I think that I would enjoy this. No healthcare system is perfect, and I tend not to favor a purely socialized system like they have in The U.K. , but I think that the system that is operating in America is just plain harmful for way too many people. I think that in comparison to what we are doing, even very flawed systems look good.

Brian Joseph said...

P.S. - Even though your snow was a bit wimpy I empathize :) We have had a terribley cold winter here in NY. I cannot wait until spring.

Have a great week!

Mudpuddle said...

Zimlensky i never heard of; i listened to a bit of it: Tchaikowski's son-in-law, was he? very romantic... i don't know much about medicine, except that doctors seem like factory hands and insurance salesmen do the diagnoses... i've had to go to see someone twice in the last five years and both times i received the wrong diagnosis... too many people, too few doctors, and they're too rushed to do their job... it's a sad situation and one that could be corrected by right-thinking intelligent persons in the government... unfortunately...

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Mudpuddle. I just happened to hear Zimlensky on the radio and liked it.

I looked up Zimlensky's love life. He was fell in love with but was rejected by Alma Schindler who later married Gustav Mahler. Later he married Ida Guttman but it was an unhappy marriage. After her death he married Luise Sachel who was twenty-nine years younger than him but they were happy and that's what counts.

I know what you mean about health care. I rarely go to the doctor but a trip to the ER for kidney stones paid off my deductible so I went and got all the other physicals out of the way as well.

We do need more doctors and they need to not double and triple book their patients. I always bring a nice thick book with me to the medical clinic. I guess I can read just as easily in a waiting room as my sofa.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Brian you would definitely enjoy this book. I know that our system needs a lot of improvement and I could write a dissertation on how I think it could be approved. I would not, however, want to go to a socialized system as in the UK. Even in our country those who receive government assistance through medicaid have less autonomy then those of us with private insurance.

I will say I'm glad my mother is here. She has stage four cancer and receiving extremely expensive treatment that medicare pays for. She is 81 and no one is turning her away because of her age. She also has macular degeneration for which she receives monthly shots in the eye. She has good doctors, thank God.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Ha! I understand. I used to live in New Jersey. I loved it when we had a blizzard at night and got to stay home from school until they cleared the roads.

I hated it when the blizzard happened while I was at work because then it took forever to get home. :(

At least you have a nice, long spring. Ours lasts two weeks and then it's hot, hot, hot!

Mudpuddle said...

the book sounded pretty exciting: hard to imagine people who can do that kind of thing, surgery, i mean... and kidney stones!! that's terrible; i feel for anyone who has to go through that!... hope it's not a recurring issue...

Sharon Wilfong said...

Mudpuddle, the book was extremely suspenseful and fast paced.

As for my kidney stones. I hope I never go through that again. I thought I was going through kidney failure. I had a follow up this December and they took an x ray. They did not see anything thank goodness!

Carol N Wong said...

I had entered a contest for this book and lost. Thank you for the review. Will add it to my wish list.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Carol. I think you will enjoy it. It is a fascinating book. And Westaby is a fluid writer.

Phyllis Winn said...

Hi Sharon, What in interesting book. I'm wondering how this fella had the time to write his book. I, too, have had very good experience with the health care here in America with my 91 year old mom. And when the VA was fixed recently by our new administration, Terry's 102 year old dad gets much better and quicker care. My friend, Ruth, in her 50's doesn't have a regular doc, so she went to the ER and had excellent and thorough care there. I have experienced the same when we had to take mom and Terry's dad to the ER. Medicare has taken care of the bills. America continues to be blessed by God in so many ways. We are still a Christian nation, and we must continue to honor God, read his word, and live accordingly. There is evidence that the UK is a dark, Godless place, (as their health care system shows)

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Phyllis! So good to hear from you. You haven't commented in a while.

It's reassuring to hear you say that. On Goodreads I got lambasted by two Englishmen who told me I was brainwashed by Republican ideology, stupid, backwards, uneducated and furthermore evil for believing in a system that promotes free enterprise. The one told me that he was not only unfriending me (they both unfriended me) but blocking me because he considered me dangerous.

I did not know whether to be offended or flattered that they cared so much about my opinion.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Oh, and Westaby had retired when he wrote this book. He's in his seventies.

Anonymous said...

This book sounds fascinating. I used to enjoy medical nonfiction at times. Although, I'm with you on not appreciating foul language every other word. Glad you got through your big snowstorm! :)

Anonymous said...

This book sounds fascinating. I used to enjoy medical nonfiction at times. Although like you, I don't appreciate foul language every other word. Glad you got through your big snowstorm! :)

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Marica. Yeah, our "big" snowstorm. Compared to your neck of the woods it was not much but enough to bowl us over. I don't even own a shovel. The postman has had to tromp through the snow to get to my front door. :)