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The heart of a heart surgeon
Stephen Westaby has operated on 12,000 hearts
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. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Westaby.)
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The Outlook Podcast Archive
True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives