The Careful Surgeon Stories of light, courage and compassion in the face of darkness

by Hettiaratchy, Dr. Shehan

• ISBN13: 9781529350654
• ISBN10: 1529350654
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-06-16
• Publisher: Yellow Kite
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Summary

A teenage victim of a knife attack. A young girl who has nearly lost her leg in a boating accident. A survivor of a major terrorist attack at Westminster Bridge. Trauma surgeon Shehan Hettiaratchy has seen all these people on his operating table. In The Careful Surgeon he explains how it feels to take the lives of these people into his hands.

In this powerful, blood-stopping and incisive insight into the life of a trauma surgeon, Shehan takes us into the heart of what it takes to train, practice, perform and - mostly - perfect his surgical skills. Through real-life case studies of patients, he explains how the emotional connection he makes with them must be set aside the moment he takes a knife to cut them open.

With unflinching honesty, he shows us how things can go wrong within a heartbeat and how, when the darkness sets in, he is able to get up and do it all over again. For, ultimately it is Shehan patients who show him the light - coping with the very worst life can throw at them, fighting their way back to life - and allow him to do the job he so loves.

Radiant with light and darkness, this is a book full of scenes of life and death that the rest of us rarely even glimmer.

Author Biography

Dr Shehan Hettiaratchy is one of the UK's Leading Surgeons, London's Major Trauma Director, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College and University College London and Clinical Lead on the Veterans Trauma Network within the NHS. He led the team treating victims of the Grenfell fire and the Westminster Bridge attack (as documented by BBC's Hospital), amongst other tragic events that have occurred in our city in recent years. Dr H has been named as a Daily Mail Health Hero of the Year and included as part of The Times Alternative Rich List. He has served in the British Army since he left school and is currently a reservist serving with Airborne Forces. He has worked in war zones (Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo) and disaster areas (the Haiti earthquake) as a British Army reservist and volunteer.