Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Angina Monologues: Surgery for Broken Hearts, by Samer Nashef. Scribe Publications, 2019






 Nashef’s memoir starts with some truly awful cardiac situations. An older man needing two different operations, in which everything must be done in a certain order; a pregnant woman with cardiac artery ready to explode, so that the babies must be delivered by Caesarian Section before the lifesaving heart operation can commence. Those stories have happy endings, but not all do. The author is open about the risks of heart surgery, as well as the benefits. He describes a number of types of heart surgeries, in terms anyone can understand. He’s funny at times and heart breaking at times. He lives and works in England, but has gone to the West Bank to perform surgeries more than once. His most memorable story is about going to pick up a heart for transplant- and everything goes wrong (the heart makes it on time). It’s engrossing and easy to read. Five stars.

1 comment:

  1. Since I worked in Cardiac ICU at one time it seems like I'd find this interesting.

    ReplyDelete