BECOMING THAT GUY

What’s it like to operate on someone’s beating heart, while they’re still awake? Brian Herman has spent his forty-year career doing just that – repairing failing hearts through the tiniest of incisions. Amid dramatic stories of lives saved and lost, Herman also explores his own life path: struggling to find his way as a young man in the Bronx; professional ‘success’ that brought only burnout and disillusionment; finally, finding happiness and satisfaction as he built up the subspecialty of interventional cardiology in Launceston, Tasmania. With engaging directness, Herman reflects on what it takes to work in the high-stakes theatre of the cath lab, on the judgement that comes from experience, and on what it’s like to become that guy: the one you call when all else has failed.