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Outlook: The heart of a heart surgeon

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Stephen Westaby

16/07/2019 GMT

The heart of a heart surgeon

BBC World Service - Outlook, The heart of a heart surgeon

Stephen Westaby has operated on 12,000 hearts

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’s 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’t 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.)

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