A Surgeon and a Maverick

A Surgeon and a Maverick
Author: Simon Pearson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-07-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781649031969

The incredible life story of legendary cardiac surgeon and scientist Magdi Yacoub, an outsider who succeeded against the odds Veteran journalists Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman follow Magdi Yacoub's remarkable life from his formative years in Egypt, through spectacular success at Cairo University, and his decision to pursue his career in Britain, where he challenged the medical establishment and was awarded the highest honor in the gift of the Queen, the Order of Merit. Written with unprecedented access and drawing on extensive interviews and research, the biography recounts how Yacoub transformed the treatment of children with congenital heart disease. He performed some of the first heart transplants in Britain and the first heart-lung transplants in Europe. At London's Harefield Hospital, he created the greatest heart transplant center in the world. Among his patients are men and women who are still thriving more than thirty-five years after he gave them new hope. This story is also about science, the development of new medical techniques, and a deeper understanding of how the human body works. Today, at an age when most people have long since retired, Yacoub is still pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding and surgical know-how. He is also taking heart surgery to places that until now have had little access to cardiac treatment, developing centers of excellence across Africa, including in Egypt, where his hospital in Aswan has an international reputation, and a new center is rising in Cairo. Yacoub's life is one of triumph and tragedy, success and failure, fierce criticism and high praise--it is also an enthralling journey through the worlds of scientific research and medical politics and ethics at the highest levels.

A Surgeon and a Maverick

A Surgeon and a Maverick
Author: Simon Pearson
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2023-10-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1649032935

“[A] remarkable journey.”—The Telegraph The incredible life story of legendary cardiac surgeon and scientist Magdi Yacoub, an outsider who succeeded against the odds Veteran journalists Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman follow the remarkable life of heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub from his formative years in Egypt, through spectacular success at Cairo University, to his long and distinguished career in Britain. Although at times he clashed with the medical establishment in London, Yacoub pioneered great advances in heart surgery. He was knighted in 1992, and in 2014, he was awarded the highest honor in the gift of the Queen, the Order of Merit. Written with unprecedented access and drawing on extensive interviews and research, the biography recounts how Yacoub transformed the treatment of children with congenital heart disease. He performed some of the first heart transplants in Britain and the first heart-lung transplants in Europe. At London’s Harefield Hospital, he created the greatest heart transplant center in the world. Among his patients are men and women who are still thriving more than thirty-five years after he gave them new hope. This story is also about science, the development of new medical techniques, and a deeper understanding of how the human body works. Today, at an age when most people have long since retired, Yacoub is still pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding and surgical know-how. He is also taking heart surgery to places that until now have had little access to cardiac treatment, developing centers of excellence across Africa, including in Egypt, where his hospital in Aswan has an international reputation, and a new center is rising in Cairo. Yacoub’s life is one of triumph and tragedy, success and failure, fierce criticism and high praise—it is also an enthralling journey through the worlds of scientific research and medical politics and ethics at the highest levels.

The Great Escaper

The Great Escaper
Author: Simon Pearson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1510748970

A Sunday Times bestseller, the real story behind the mastermind of the most famous breakout in history—The Great Escape. While the most famous images from the 1963 film The Great Escape include either a motorcycle or a ball—but definitely Steve McQueen—Richard Attenborough played the part of “Big X,” the British mastermind behind the greatest escape in history. Like the subject of the film, “Big X” was a real person. Roger Bushell was the mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers to the Imperial War Museum. Through exclusive access to this material, as well as new research from other sources, Simon Pearson has written the first biography of this iconic figure. Born in South Africa in 1910, Roger Bushell was the son of a British mining engineer. On May 23, 1940, his Spitfire was shot down during a dogfight over Boulogne after destroying two German fighters. Over the next four years he made three escapes, coming within one hundred yards of the Swiss border during his first attempt. His third (and last escape) destabilized the Nazi leadership and captured the imagination of the world, forever immortalized by Hollywood. Simon Pearson's revealing biography is a vivid account of war and love, triumph and tragedy—and one man's attempt to challenge remorseless tyranny in the face of impossible odds.

Humanity and Humility

Humanity and Humility
Author: Marc de Leval
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2020-10-19
Genre:
ISBN:

In Humanity & Humility, internationally acclaimed surgeon, scientist and teacher Marc de Leval recounts with unflinching honesty and wry humour a career dedicated to saving the lives of children born with defective hearts. Marc's forthright account encompasses medical history, heroes, progress, success, failure and the remarkable resilience of the thousands of young patients who came under his care. It is a surprising and inspiring story. For more than 10 years, Marc was a Vice-President and Trustee on the Board of Chain of Hope, a charity working around the world to provide life-saving heart operations in countries where these children would otherwise not survive. To continue his support, £6 from all proceeds of the sale of his biography will go towards a fund to provide care for patients with heart disease as they go on to adolescence and adulthood. If you would like to make a further contribution please visit https: //cafdonate.cafonline.org/14407. "I used to swim at the same time as Marc every morning at the Royal Automobile Club. For years we just said "hello" and nothing else. One day we started talking and got to know each other. When I found out what he did as a job, what he'd done over the years and how many children's hearts he'd repaired or replaced it was probably one of the most special and humbling moments of my life. His story is truly remarkable." Sir Paul Smith. "Marc de Leval was an exceptional heart surgeon for children. I am so fortunate to have worked with him for 30 years. His incredible legacy is that so many of his patients are long term survivors. Infants and children on whom he operated and enabled to reach adult life to lead near normal lives. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to alter medical destiny and many of those with complicated hearts have serious medical problems which need continuing expert care, guidance, and even further surgery. In most of the countries less developed than our own, where the Chain of Hope has helped the "heart children" over the last two decades, there is no medical service created for this ever-increasing group of patients. Through buying Marc's book and by adding your own generous gifts to Chain of Hope we can bring the care needed by these long term survivors and continue giving them a future." Professor Jane Somerville.

A Brief History of the End of the World

A Brief History of the End of the World
Author: Simon Pearson
Publisher: Constable
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781845291600

Most people's concept of the 'end of the world' comes from the book of Revelation. Today, there are an estimated 25 million Christian fundamentalists in the US who believe it will come with the 'Rapture;' others point to an ecological catastrophe, the AIDS pandemic, nuclear and biological warfare. With the benefit of a vast historical canvas, Pearson examines both apocalyptic theory (biblical literature, art, and popular culture) and practice (politics, cults, war, and revolution), from its Biblical beginnings to the Branch Davidians, via the Vikings, the French Revolution, the Pilgrim Fathers, Hitler's Apocalyptic rhetoric, asteroids, Hollywood and suicide bombers. Pearson's illuminating study shows how our pictures of the end of the world have evoked and converged--and are still very much on the agenda.

Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain
Author: SIMON. GORMAN PEARSON (ED.)
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-06-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781529378085

Disarming Iraq

Disarming Iraq
Author: Hans Blix
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2004-03-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0375423230

The war against Iraq divided opinion throughout the world and generated a maelstrom of spin and counterspin. The man at the eye of the storm, and arguably the only key player to emerge from it with his integrity intact, was Hans Blix, head of the UN weapons inspection team. This is Dr. Blix’s account of what really happened during the months leading up to the declaration of war in March 2003. In riveting descriptions of his meetings with Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Kofi Annan, he conveys the frustrations, the tensions, the pressure and the drama as the clock ticked toward the fateful hour. In the process, he asks the vital questions about the war: Was it inevitable? Why couldn’t the U.S. and UK get the backing of the other member states of the UN Security Council? Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction? What does the situation in Iraq teach us about the propriety and efficacy of policies of preemptive attack and unilateral action? Free of the agendas of politicians and ideologues, Blix is the plainspoken, measured voice of reason in the cacophony of debate about Iraq. His assessment of what happened is invaluable in trying to understand both what brought us to the present state of affairs and what we can learn as we try to move toward peace and security in the world after Iraq.

Women Our History

Women Our History
Author: DK
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Total Pages: 840
Release: 2022-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0241444381

Re-examining history from a female perspective, this book celebrates the numerous important roles women have played in culture and society that are less often told. Includes evocative images, this gloriously illustrated ebook reveals the key events in women's history - from early matriarchal societies through women's suffrage, the Suffragette movement, 20th-century feminism and gender politics, to recent movements such as #MeToo and International Women's Day - and the key role women have had in shaping our past. Learn about the everyday lives of women through the ages as well as the big names of women's history - powerful, inspirational, and trailblazing women such as Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Eva Peron, and Rosa Parks - and discover the unsung contributions of lesser-known women who have changed the world, and the "forgotten" events of women's history. Placing women firmly centre stage, Women - Our History shows women where they have come from, and, in celebrating the achievements of women of the past offers positive role models for women of today

Heart Transplantation

Heart Transplantation
Author: D.K. Cooper
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9401173249

It is a great pleasure for me to contribute a brief introduction to this volume, to which so many of my colleagues at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town Medical School have contributed. Though considerable advances have been made in preventing or treating the complications of heart transplantation, even today a transplant pro gramme remains a major undertaking for a hospital team. The acquisition of a sufficient number of donor hearts, the maintenance of viability of those hearts, and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic rejection and infection remain major challenges to those caring for patients undergoing this operation. A transplant programme draws into it medical, surgical, nursing and paramedical staff from all quarters of the hospital and medical school, and requires sustained interest and dedication if patients are to be brought successfully through the procedure. If relevant experimental research is also to be carried out at such a centre, which in my opinion is essential, then an even greater number of highly skilled and creative people is required. A few of the authors of this book have been involved with the Groote Schuur heart transplant programme since its inception in December 1967 with the operation on Louis Washkansky. I am sure that none of them (nor I) had any idea of the public interest this operation would attract.