The Walker With Heart

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...

It seems odd, a man whose skills have meant for the last 47 and a bit years I’ve been able to do all of my adventures the only man whose had their hands inside my chest cavity, has died. Marc De Leval was a great, and not just for me… ok, even I’ve not got that much of an ego!!! Lots has been written and will be written about why he’s a great – the start of paediatric heart transplants in the UK, his 30 years of surgical practice, his work on taking congenital heart surgery around the world…  But for me, it was his humility… His Autobiography is called “Humanity & Humility: 40 Years in Children's Heart Surgery” and although I have never met Marc (well never in my memory) I have met most of the others on what I consider to be the greatest example of humility in a congenital heart surgeon -  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022522394703507  as a surgeon he had a run of cases where children died, and did not brush this off as “bad luck”, but opened him...