Scrubbed: A heart surgeon's extraordinary memoir of life, death and everything in between

Nikki Stamp

Mei 2022 · Allen & Unwin

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The revealing, compelling memoir of one of Australia's foremost cardiothoracic surgeons, Dr Nikki Stamp.

Raw, honest and compelling, Scrubbed is Dr Nikki Stamp's account of her life as one of Australia's leading cardiothoracic surgeons. A life lived at the very edge of modern medicine, where heart surgeons walk the thinnest of lines between life and death, and yet where the greatest challenge can be the medical system itself.

From childhood Nikki Stamp wanted to be a doctor. It was a calling, not a career. Her love for her vocation only grew as a medical student, and as a young registrar going through training rotations she fell, totally and utterly, for the hugely demanding specialty of cardiothoracic surgery. But alongside the excitement and enormous challenges of trying to make it in one of the toughest and most competitive fields of surgery came warning signs. Even in the operating theatre, where she felt most alive, she battled with sexism, enormous egos and at times outright bullying. And within the hospital system she lived with inhuman hours, chronic sleep deprivation and bureaucratic mismanagement that had a profoundly damaging effect on her life outside of work.

From the drama of the operating theatre, filled with both triumph and tragedy, to the brutal realities of surgical training and the sacrifices needed to make it to the top, to entrenched misogyny and the grinding nature of hospital politics, Scrubbed is one of the most revealing books yet written about the real life and experiences of a surgeon.

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Dr Nikki Stamp FRACS is a cardiothoracic surgeon, one of only 13 female heart surgeons in Australia. She has a strong desire to change the way we think about health by making it accessible and achievable. She is currently studying a PhD and has appeared as host of ABC Catalyst, Operation Live and many other TV segments. Her writing has featured in the Washington Post, Mamamia, the Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post and The Guardian.