By Gabriel Weston/London
Doctors are drawn into their profession for all sorts of reasons. Some follow in the footsteps of a relative or friend. Others excel at science at school. In my case, the decision was made one morning, out of the blue, as I looked into an open body.
While studying English literature as an undergraduate I had a friend whose father was a surgeon. When introduced to him, I badgered this man so relentlessly about his job that he asked if I would like to visit his operating theatre.
Over the course of a day, I watched him remove a cancer from a man’s jaw, then repair it. I will never forget the way I felt seeing someone’s face being dissected, layer by layer, then rebuilt. I made the decision then and there that I wanted to go to medical school.
It’s been nearly 20 years since that day, and now I’m a surgeon myself. But I have never lost my sense of wonder at the human body. This weekly column is about the details of the body that have fascinated me; parts as big as a leg, or as small as a cell.