Book description
Lifes greatest challenges come from within. At 47, Jonathan Brewster
finally feels like he's king of the world - he has a lucrative job, a
happy marriage, two children in private schools, an impressive house and
a flashy car. He's also hugely in debt, but that's never really bothered
him - until he wakes up at dawn bursting for the toilet, urinates blood
and ends up waiting eight hours in Emergency before he sees a doctor. In
the midst of his successful life, Jonathan has neglected to take care of
his health, or even to conceive of the possibility of losing it.
Urologist Mohamed Khadra comes into contact with this patient as he
enters a maze of diagnosis and treatment for what turns out to be
bladder cancer. For Dr Khadra, Jonathan goes from being just another
patient - albeit a young one to be suffering from this particular
disease - to something much more, as the parallels between them become
apparent. Dr Khadra's life, too, seems to be following its planned
trajectory until his own first-hand experience of disease teaches him
that life is fleeting and unpredictable. In being confronted with their
own mortality, both Jonathan and Dr Khadra develop a heightened
awareness of, and gratitude for, the lives they have lived. From the
author of the bestselling Making the Cut comes this gripping non-fiction
story of a stranger in the strangest of lands: the Australian
health-care system. It is at once a reassurance of the ties that bind
all human beings to each other, a manual for patients, families and
health-care workers and a moving examination of the human spirit.
Mohamed Khadra is a professor of Surgery at the University of Sydney,
Australia. He has had a successful and varied career as a leader in
education and medicine, internationally and in Australia. He has a
degree in Medicine, a PhD and a fellowship of the Royal Australasian
College of Surgeons. He also has a postgraduate degree in Computing and
a Masters in Education. His roles have included Inaugural Chair of
Surgery at the Australian National University, Pro-vice Chancellor for
Health, Design and Science at the University of Canberra, Professor of
Surgery and Head of the School of Rural Health for the University of New
South Wales. He has won several research prizes, including the Noel
Newton Prize for surgical research and the Alban Gee Prize in urology.
Mohamed is co-founder of the Institute of Technology Australia, an
accredited higher-education provider that contributes to social justice
by delivering accessible and affordable degrees to students in
developing countries. He is the author of Making the Cut: A Surgeon's
Stories Of Life On The Edge; The Patient: One Man's Journey Through The
Australian Health-Care System; and co-author with David Williamson of
the play At What Cost?
