• Draws on archival documents, personal collections, innumerable historical publications, and current literature
• Includes interviews with contemporary surgeons, cardiologists, nurses, heart-lung pump technicians, administrators, and donors and philanthropists
• Teaches the importance of imagination, creativity, discipline, determination, patience, hard work, and resilience in the face of disappointment or failure 

Edward Shorter is Jason A. Hannah Professor of the History of Medicine and a professor of psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

A social historian of medicine and clinical science, Professor Shorter has published widely in this field, including histories of obstetrics and gynaecology (Women’s Bodies), the doctor-patient relationship (Doctors and Their Patients), psychosomatic illness (From Paralysis to Fatigue), and sexuality (Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire). He is also the author of Partnership for Excellence: Medicine at the University of Toronto and Academic Hospitals (2013), which traces the evolution of Toronto’s academic health science network.

Since 1991 Shorter’s primary appointment has been in the Faculty of Medicine, where he holds the Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine. Since then he has emerged as an internationally recognized historian of psychiatry and the author of numerous books on the evolution of the discipline, including A History of Psychiatry (1997); Before Prozac (2009); and How Everyone Became Depressed (2013). In 1996 he was cross-appointed as a Professor of Psychiatry. His latest book, The Madness of Fear: A History of Catatonia (2018), co-written with Dr. Max Fink, provides an accurate understanding of the symptoms and treatments for an illness that has long been hidden under other diagnoses.

Bernard S. Goldman is a professor emeritus of Cardiac Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a heart surgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

"The contributions of the Toronto General Hospital program toward the global development of the field of cardiac surgery are historic and in several ways unsurpassed. This is a riveting book, masterfully crafted by doctors Shorter, Scully, and Goldman. Canada had and continues to have a huge international impact in cardiac surgery, and the innovative work at the Toronto General Hospital has been central to this positive role."

"A fun read! This book offers insider perspectives of Toronto General Hospital’s heart surgery giants – how they literally ‘walked’ and ‘talked’ – from individuals who worked alongside many of them. Exposed are the surgical personalities and tensions – rarely shared beyond inner circles – revealing the ‘sharp elbows’ and ‘bitterness’ that pervaded the environment at times."

"It was my great fortune to train with these outstanding University of Toronto cardiac surgeons more than forty years ago. I was inspired by their commitment to scholarship, innovation, and technical excellence in pursuit of the highest standard in patient care. Like many academic cardiothoracic surgeons around the world, I was grateful to receive valuable mentorship and sponsorship from this pre-eminent group of cardiac surgeons."