‘Never, never, never give in’, Winston Churchill’s famous quotation best sums up the life of Stephen Westaby, the world-leading cardiothoracic surgeon.

This book chronicles the triumphs and failures of his surgical life, the lives saved and extended, the innovations (such as artificial hearts) he developed, and his research discoveries.

Having spent his childhood in the backstreets of a northern steel town, he went on to become one of the world’s foremost heart surgeons. His drive for perfection in his profession took him to the world-renowned Harefield Hospital, the foremost heart surgery centre in Birmingham, Alabama and the newly-created Cardiothoracic Centre in Oxford. In 2019 he was the first Western doctor in Wuhan to learn about Covid before the virus was identified.

Following on from his two earlier best-selling works, Fragile Lives and The Knife’s Edge this volume is written with humour and a doctor’s reverence for life and his patients. The Trauma Chronicles gives an unmissable insight into the world of one of the greatest living heart surgeons.