Structure of the Book

The book is illustrated and includes descriptive legends that will allow the busy surgeon to find time to “read” this excessively long and detailed tome in much the same way that I (and I suspect many other surgeons) read most journal articles: careful digestion of the abstract, viewing all figures, tables and legends in detail and further review of the conclusion. I do hope that the final review by surgeons in the field and those entering the field will include taking the final chapter to heart as I am concerned for the future of the specialty if it continues on its current trajectory.

Section I of the book covers my early years in Australia from primary and secondary school days in Adelaide up to completion of my General Surgical training in Melbourne. I contrast educational differences with the US where my own three children have been educated as well as differences in cultural and healthcare matters. During my medical school years I had the fortunate opportunity to spend time in the midlands of the UK as well as Papua New Guinea which gave me a taste of nationalized medicine that I would later experience in New Zealand as well as the risks and rewards of medical missionary work.

Section II covers my training in cardiothoracic surgery beginning at Royal Children’s in Melbourne, continuing with Barratt-Boyes in New Zealand and finishing in Boston at the Brigham and Women’s and Children’s Hospitals. As for many trainees, it was an important time for me outside of the hospital including marriage, two international moves and the birth of my first child, Andrew.

Section III covers my years on staff at Boston Children’s rising from Instructor to Tenured and Endowed Professor at Harvard Medical School, setting up a research lab, teaching surgery to Harvard trainees and beginning to learn some hard lessons about the political challenges in the world of academic medicine. And during that same busy professional time, I began teaching in China with Project Hope, was blessed with my second son, Michael and suffered through a divorce. But not long before leaving Boston I had the good fortune to meet and later marry Katherine and welcome our baby girl, Nicole into the world.

Section IV covers my move to Washington DC where I faced a new world of political challenges establishing a new Heart Institute model at Children’s National Medical Center in the cosmopolitan world of the US capital. And over the Washington years I had the great honor of leading three major organizations in the world of academic cardiac surgery, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society and the new World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery. The book concludes with challenges ahead for the field of congenital heart surgery. It is intended to inspire those who love a challenge and certainly not to discourage anyone from entering the most rewarding field in the entire spectrum of healthcare.