The Careful Surgeon

Stories of light, courage and compassion in the face of darkness

By: Dr Shehan Hettiaratchy

What does it feel like to cut someone open with a knife, to know that their life lies in your hands? What does it feel like to be responsible for saving someone's limbs? What does it feel like when you make the wrong, catastrophic, decision during an operation? And how, as a trainee surgeon, do you find the courage to do your first major operation?
In this powerful, blood-stopping and incisive insight into the life of a trauma surgeon, Dr Shehan Hettiaratchy 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 shows us how the emotional connection he makes with them has to be set aside the moment he takes a knife to cut them open. And despite the vast majority of operations going well - earning him the nickname of 'The Magician' - 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, whether it be a teenage victim of a knife attack; a young girl who has nearly lost her leg during a boating accident; a survivor of a major terrorist attack at Westminster Bridge; a soldier staring into the abyss in Afghanistan, it is Shehan Hettiaratchy's patients who show him the light, coping with the very worst life can throw at them, fighting their way back to life, that allows 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.©2025 Dr Shehan Hettiaratchy (P)2025 Hodder & Stoughton Limited