Becoming That Guy (Paperback or Softback)

What's it like to operate on someone's beating heart, while they're still awake?
'I read it in one sitting. I was awed, sobered and teary-eyed all at once.' Dr Ranjana Srivastava
‘The real deal. True life stories reflecting the complexity of the profession and the impact it has on one’s life. Loved it.' Dr Srikanth Koneru
Brian Herman has spent his forty-year career doing just that - repairing failing hearts through the tiniest of incisions.
Amid dramatic stories of lives saved and lost, Herman also explores his own life path: struggling to find his way as a young man in the Bronx; professional 'success' that brought only burnout and disillusionment; finally, finding happiness and satisfaction as he built up the subspecialty of interventional cardiology in Launceston, Tasmania.
With engaging directness, Herman reflects on what it takes to work in the high-stakes theatre of the cath lab, on the judgement that comes from experience, and on what it's like to become that guy: the one you call when all else has failed.

After a career in private practice in the USA, Brian Herman MD PhD moved to Tasmania, where he was instrumental in bringing a cardiac training program to the north of the state. He became Director of Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at a major public hospital there and Associate Professor of Cardiology at the University of Tasmania.