The Story of a Heart

The first of our organs to form, the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of all that makes us human: as long as it continues to beat, we hope. The Story of a Heart is the narrative of the staggering medical innovations that have given us heart transplants, interwoven with the story of two children - one of whom desperately waits for a heart to save his life. Setting out for a family day in Devon, nine-year-old Keira Ball suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a car accident. Against all the odds her heart continued to beat. Halfway across the country, the hospital in which Max Johnson lay with end-stage heart failure, received a potentially life-saving call . In an act of extraordinary generosity Keira''s parents and siblings immediately and unanimously agreed that she would have wanted her organs donated. Rachel Clarke relates the emotional and urgent journey of Keira''s heart and meticulously unpicks the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible: a testament to medical innovation that stretches back over a century, involving the knowledge and dedication not just of headline-grabbing surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and physicians, of paramedics and the motorists who give way to their blue lights. Perhaps most of all, The Story of a Heart speaks of the compassion that shows itself in the protocols of respect to the dying, and in the ways we honour our loved ones: it is a story of the tenacity of love.

Préface
The Story of a Heart is an extraordinary, compelling account of life-giving medicine. Rachel Clarke follows the journey of a human heart - and narrates one of the most miraculous developments in 20th century medicine - as she describes the saving of a nine-year-old boy.

Auteur

Dr Rachel Clarke is an NHS palliative care doctor and the author of three Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction books. The most recent of these, Breathtaking (2021), was adapted into an acclaimed television series, broadcast on ITV in 2024. It reveals how she and her colleagues confronted the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dear Life (2020), depicting her work in an NHS hospice, was shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Your Life in My Hands (2017) documents life as a junior doctor. Before going to medical school, Rachel was a broadcast journalist. She produced and directed current affairs documentaries focusing on subjects such as Al Qaeda, the Iraq War and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She continues to write regularly for the Guardian, Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet among others, and appears regularly on television and radio. Inspired by a visit to Ukraine during the conflict in late 2022, Rachel founded a UK-registered charity, Hospice Ukraine, which supports the work of local palliative care teams in Ukraine.

Texte du rabat

'The Story of a Heart is the best narrative non-fiction I've read in years. Rachel Clarke has written a profound piece of investigative journalism and wrapped it up in poetry. A story of death - and life, and how one incredible family gifted a miracle to another ' Christie Watson , author of The Language of Kindness
'An extraordinary story, beautifully told ' *Adam Kay

• ' Rachel Clarke's words are brimful of love, grace and kindness - Guardian

Résumé

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER DEAR LIF*E AND *BREATHTAKING, A MAJOR TV DRAMA

'Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring' Rob Delaney

'The best narrative non-fiction I've read in years. Rachel Clarke has written a profound piece of investigative journalism and wrapped it up in poetry' Christie Watson

The first of our organs to form, the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of all that makes us human: as long as it continues to beat, we hope. The Story of a Heart is the narrative of the staggering medical innovations that have given us heart transplants, interwoven with the story of two children - one of whom desperately waits for a heart to save his life.

Setting out for a family day in Devon, nine-year-old Keira Ball suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a car accident. Against all the odds her heart continued to beat. Halfway across the country, the hospital in which Max Johnson lay with end-stage heart failure, received a potentially life-saving call . In an act of extraordinary generosity Keira's parents and siblings immediately and unanimously agreed that she would have wanted her organs donated.

Rachel Clarke relates the emotional and urgent journey of Keira's heart and meticulously unpicks the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible: a testament to medical innovation that stretches back over a century, involving the knowledge and dedication not just of headline-grabbing surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and physicians, of paramedics and the motorists who give way to their blue lights.

Perhaps most of all, The Story of a Heart speaks of the compassion that shows itself in the protocols of respect to the dying, and in the ways we honour our loved ones: it is a story of the tenacity of love.