Book review: A peek into the mysteries of medicine, life of a surgeon

‘Heartfelt: A Cardiac Surgeon’s Pioneering Journey’, written by Dr P Venugopal and Priya Sarkar, and published by HarperCollins, is literally a story with a heart. The first-person narrative infuses you with energy and inspiration as it transports you to Dr. Venugopal’s life. Dr. Venugopal has many firsts to his credit, and with his successful breakthrough in heart transplant surgery in India, Dr. Venugopal opened the flood gates to the possibilities that medical profession can unlock with innovation, persistence and dedication. His haunting words, “I continue to live in the hope that we will devise easier, more affordable and more sustainable means to give life to dying hearts”, leaves even lay readers like me inspired. And this is where the book scores – it is not just for the medicos, it reaches out to the common man, giving them a peek into the mysteries of medicine and into the life and times of a surgeon, his struggles, his achievements and his frailties as a human being.

Written beautifully by Priya Sarkar, an accomplished communication professional who is also Dr. Venugopal’s wife, this fresh style of storytelling is a truthful and unexaggerated account, engrossing and revealing but understated like the man himself. The book traverses his lifespan to date, but steers clear of being a chronological account, and focuses on the highlights of a childhood reminiscent of ‘Malgudi Days’, the trials of a young medical student, the shock and awe at the American lifestyle, the great personalities he’s interacted with over the years, his struggles at envisioning and building institutions, major surgical breakthroughs of the time, never-told-before personal vignettes and the controversial case that marred the last years of his tenure at AIIMS.

This is what biographies are meant to read like - inspirational, unadulterated, truthful! If there is one thing I’d fault here – it’s an unputdownable read that ends too soon; ‘yeh dil maange more!’

(The writer is a blogger, compassionate do-good-er, an adventurer And a communication specialist at an MNC)