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The Careful Surgeon

Finding light, courage & compassion in the face of life & death

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The Careful Surgeon

By: Shehan Hettiaratchy
Narrated by: Shehan Hettiaratchy
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About this listen

 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's 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.©2026 Shehan Hettiaratchy Medical Medicine & Health Care Industry Professionals & Academics Surgery Heartfelt

Critic Reviews

Gripping, harrowing and inspiring - a book about saving lives, losing lives and the stubborn hope that keeps a surgeon going.
All stars
Most relevant
A unique insight into the experience, motivation and reflections of one of the UKs top Reconstructive and Trauma surgeons. A gripping listen, not always easy (and occasionally very traumatic) but important and valuable for current and future surgeons.

I had the privilege of working with H as his junior while we were both trainees and collaborating on research work later as consultants. He sets the very highest standards personally & surgically and can be depended on to deliver them. His clear and heartfelt memoir asks serious questions about the future of surgical training while reminding us all why we get up each day to do what we do.

Works particularly well as an audiobook, highly recommended

Thought provoking, challenging and uplifting

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