War Doctor
Surgery on the Front Line
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
A powerful and intensely moving memoir by an NHS surgeon who volunteered in war zones, operating under the most extreme circumstances.
‘Brave, compassionate and inspiring – it left me in floods of tears’ – Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt
For more than twenty-five years, David Nott has taken unpaid leave from his job as a general and vascular surgeon with the NHS to volunteer in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993, to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out life-saving operations and field surgery in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major London teaching hospital.
The conflicts he has worked in form a chronology of twenty-first-century combat: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Darfur, Congo, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and Syria. But he has also volunteered in areas blighted by natural disasters, such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal.
Driven both by compassion and passion, the desire to help others and the thrill of extreme personal danger, he is now widely acknowledged to be the most experienced trauma surgeon in the world. But as time went on, David Nott began to realize that flying into a catastrophe – whether war or natural disaster – was not enough. Doctors on the ground needed to learn how to treat the appalling injuries that war inflicts upon its victims. Since 2015, the foundation he set up with his wife, Elly, has disseminated the knowledge he has gained, training other doctors in the art of saving lives threatened by bombs and bullets.
War Doctor is his extraordinary story.
'One of the most brutally vivid evocations of modern warfare that you will read . . . superb, unforgettable, simply written and painfully clear' – Sunday Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
David Nott is a remarkable man. The NHS surgeon has spent a quarter of a century taking unpaid leave to treat patients in war zones and disaster sites across the world. He’s survived hospital bombings, dodged snipers’ bullets and demanded a meeting with a Taliban commander—all in the name of saving lives and educating other frontline doctors. Nott’s introspective reflections on what drives him to do what he does are incredibly insightful and moving. This book is a true testament to heroism and compassion.
Customer Reviews
Wow
Humbling, inspiring, heart warming. Must read!
Utterly life-changing
I’m sitting here in renewed tears, having just recovered from finishing the main body of the book, only to have read the afterword and dissolved back into sobs - this book did more to help me to understand the plight of those around the world in war-torn countries than twenty years of news, media, films and documentaries. David Nott has spun a delicate web of practical information, heart-rending emotion, inspiring hope and near-laughable humility to create this masterpiece, and it’s a book that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Couldn’t stop reading
I picked up this book hoping to get an insight into the life of a doctor, but the story I’ve just read is rather a story of a hero.
From turning the first page of this story, i found myself reading for hours on end, every page flowing into the next and the emotions inspired in me unparalleled to any book I’ve ever read.
Dr Nott is an peerless character.