The Story of a Heart: From the author of Breathtaking, now a major ITV drama

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FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER DEAR LIFE 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.

Reviews

Profoundly moving and at the same time wildly inspiring. A beautiful, humane book... Even hearing a sliver of this story would make you hunger to learn every possible detail, and rare is the writer who could pull it together so beautifully * Rob Delaney *
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 Bio

Before going to medical school, Dr Rachel Clarke was a television journalist and documentary maker. She now specialises in palliative medicine, caring deeply about helping patients live the end of their lives as fully and richly as possible - and in the power of human stories to build empathy and inspire change. Rachel is the author of three Sunday Times bestselling books. Breathtaking reveals what life was really like inside the NHS during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Dear Life, shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize, is based on her work in a hospice. It explores love, loss, grief, dying and what really matters at the end of life. Your Life in My Hands documents life as a junior doctor on the NHS frontline.