Heart Matters: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon

This is a wonderful, inspiring book! More than a memoir, t is well-written and difficult to put down. Dr. Magliato really hits it home for working woman and the struggles that we face, balancing work and family lives. In this book she tells the stories of women, much like us all, who could have prevented heart disease. The information about heart disease in women is fascinating and worth the read itself. A must-read for women!

WHAT A GREAT BOOK! Though I'd like to write her to hopefully ask about some issues she brought up (I'm a nurse), it was SO GOOD. It honestly made me fall in love with medicine again. SO GOOD. It's a great insight into the world of cardiac surgeouns, as well as medicine, as well as heart health. LOVED it -- I'm sad it's over.

With incredible wit, compassion, perceptiveness and candor, Dr. Kathy Magliato takes the reader on a magical journey into the male-dominated world of cardiothoracic surgery. From the first time Dr. Magliato felt a heart, the impetus for her chosen career, to the final chapters, her story will touch any reader's heart. Inspirational, honest, informative, refreshing and funny, this memoir is a must-read. You will find yourself cheering for this phenomenal surgeon, wife and mother. Bravo, Dr. Magliato.

An engrossing page turner, filled with incredible details of a surgeon's daily life, mixed with the compassion of life's lessons and value and insight. Her wry sense of humor and honest self portrayl make it all so real and engaging...a tear jerker, at times, a definite 5 star!

"Healing Hearts" is Dr. Kathy Magliato's account of her life as one of the few female cardiothoracic surgeons in the United States. She is also a loving wife and the doting mother of two young sons. At forty-five, Magliato is an attending surgeon and the director of women's cardiac services in a California hospital. She has an MBA, which has enabled her to branch out into the business side of medicine. Her husband, Nick, is a busy liver transplant surgeon, and the two are in frequent contact every day, trying to coordinate their hectic schedules to allow for family time. Dr. Magliato touches briefly on her childhood, during which she learned to work hard and be self-sufficient; her grueling medical training under some tough mentors; the gender prejudice and humiliation that she endured from her sexist colleagues; the special satisfaction that she derives from healing people's hearts ("an incredible honor and privilege"); the difficult balancing act of juggling her career and personal life; the need to be detached in the operating room, yet tender with patients and their families; and the anguish of letting a patient go when he cannot be saved. Magliato is on call 24/7, including weekends, and even her nights are interrupted with frequent pages and phone calls. She is chronically exhausted and wistfully states, "How I wish I could be lazy. Just once." This is a frank, occasionally grisly, and often poignant look at how heart disease affects our lives. Anyone, from an infant to a nonagenarian, can have a heart infection, a tear in the aorta, blot clots, leaky valves and a host of other problems. A good heart surgeon should be proficient, knowledgeable, meticulous, steady, and when necessary, quick. In dire situations, every second counts and immediate decisions must be made that, if wrong, can cost a person his life. Some of the most touching passages are the ones dealing with an elderly woman's decision to reject heroic measures so that she can die peacefully, and Magliato's holding an eleven-day old baby in her arms who, unfortunately, did not make it. Not all is gloom and doom; Magliato has dinner with a former patient named Sylvester whom she treated six years earlier. Sylvester needed two mechanical hearts to stabilize him while he awaited a transplant. Eventually, he received a heart, but all did not go well. After suffering severe complications (including respiratory failure, kidney problems, convulsions, and a pulmonary embolism), he managed to pull through and resume an active life. These are situations that can pierce even a tough doctor's armor. The author takes great pains to emphasize how high the mortality rate is for females suffering from cardiovascular disease. She advises women to meticulously monitor their blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and weight. If they experience any of the warning signs listed in the book, they should rush to the emergency room. Too many females assume that heart disease