Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table

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Westaby was determined to save the child as he understood the torment the young woman felt as she finally relinquished her iron-like grip on her precious bundle of rags. Intent on bringing good news to the mother, he tried a heretical method which proved successful. Unfortunately, immediately after the operation, his attention was diverted to another trauma patient. Within this time, tampering from the inexperienced intensive care team led to a rapid deterioration that left the boy beyond salvation. There was nothing Westaby could do to reverse the damage. A brilliant, thought provoking memoir chronicling renowned heart surgeon Westaby as he details his life and career. Starting from humble beginnings, the author challenges the perception that only public schoolboys get to be surgeons. It is raw medicine, meaning sometimes it goes really well and everything is amazing, but some others it does not. And I think it was really important to deliver that message as well. Because it is a history of a human being, and only success would have made it boring, dull, and not realistic at all. And well, if it was only failure, he would not have become the eminence he is at the moment in hin field. Speech-language therapists can help people with Fragile X syndrome improve their pronunciation of words and sentences, slow down their speech, and use language more effectively.

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Westaby worked all over the world and experienced many levels of both staff competence and facility provision. When dealing with a patient who will surely die without intervention, risks seem a price worth paying. This is the way, the only way, that new techniques and treatments can be developed.The stakes could not be higher in this bloody, muscular and adrenaline-charged memoir from a pioneering heart surgeon... at points it made my own heart race dangerously. ‘Surgeons are meant to be objective,’ Westaby tells himself, ‘not human’. What makes this book so fascinating, and so moving, is the terrible tension between these necessary qualities.’– Sunday Times This film was made by the CITB with the assistance of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and co-operation of Working Well Together (WWT) Like Henry Marsh, Westaby has become disgruntled with an NHS bogged down in bureaucracy. It's only briefly mentioned at the end, but you can sense his frustration with the system in some of the cases. Who thinks it makes sense to send senior surgeons on courses to learn CPR? And the death list! Some government idiot decided to name and shame surgeons who have deaths on their operating tables. Seriously ill people will die sometimes. This just deters surgeons from taking risks, risks that could save lives. Most people given a chance of a slow and painful death or a risky surgery, would rather have the surgery. Instead they are filled with drugs and sent home to die. Include functional goals with academic goals; for instance, teach the individual the names of different pieces of clothing as well as how to dress himself/herself.

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People with Fragile X do not all have the same signs and symptoms, but they do have some things in common. Symptoms are often milder in females than in males. An incredible memoir from one of the world’s most eminent heart surgeons, recalling some of the most remarkable and poignant cases he’s worked on. As a doctor I truly enjoyed this book and how the patients’ stories were told in a respectful way without loosing that morbid matter-of-fact humor many doctors develop. This book shines a light on how harsh the "postcode lottery" can be. Westaby raised charitable funds to help patients in his Oxford hospital and he also had the expertise there, something a lot of hospitals just don't have, not through any fault of their own. Despite Oxford being a centre of excellence for heart surgery, they were not a transplant centre and therefore they got no NHS funding for the very pumps Westaby had trailblazed. He might be able to fix you, but the device he needed just wasn't always available. The number of repeats, also called the “size of the mutation,” affects the type of symptoms and how serious the symptoms of Fragile X syndrome will be. Inheriting Fragile X SyndromeWe’re here for the patients, not for ourselves. We may suffer for that but we’ll rarely regret it. Who would I recommend this book to?

Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby | Book Review Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby | Book Review

Julie is alive today, as is Kirsty, operated on as a six-month-old baby, with Westaby innovating as he cuts, and learning in both cases that, given a chance, the heart can heal itself: a groundbreaking discovery. Pregnant women who have an FMR1 premutation or full mutation may pass that mutated gene on to their children. A prenatal test allows healthcare providers to detect the mutated gene in the developing fetus. This important information helps families and providers to prepare for Fragile X syndrome and to intervene as early as possible. In general, there are three options for the classroom placement of a child with Fragile X, based on that child’s specific abilities and needs:Westaby often describes the torture of empathy and the need for a surgeon to avoid it so that he can stay focused and keep trying to save lives. But his empathy still shines through in every chapter. No more so than in ‘The Girl with No Name’, when Westaby is working in Saudi Arabia for a few months and he must operate on a baby boy whose Somali-born mother was kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery before escaping and walking countless miles holding her dying child before rescue.

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Placement decisions should be based on each child’s needs and abilities. The Individualized Educational Plan (IEP)Those who believe that the drama of medical TV shows is overplayed should read this book. It is a fascinating account of a career that observed and facilitated huge medical innovation. The effect this had on the patients whose cases are included had me in tears of sorrow and joy on more than one occasion. To anyone with an opinion on the value of national healthcare expenditure, this is a recommended read. One of those cases where I was in a funk and just going through OverDrive app, trying to find something different to listen to, that would lift me out of the fog and de-stress me. Please note that some of these medications carry serious risks. Others may make symptoms worse at first, or they may take several weeks to become effective. Doctors may have to try different dosages or combinations of medications to find the most effective plan. Families, caregivers, and doctors need to work together to ensure that a medication is working and that the medication plan is safe.