First job of the day was a quick check of the wards to look for any of my patients with the O sign: unconscious with an open mouth. Or worse, the Q sign: same as the O sign, but with the tongue hanging out to one side and no pulse ...What does it take to cut into living flesh, get drenched in warm blood, and operate with only a 50/50 chance of success? To know one wrong move might kill a patient.Tell parents their child is dead. And do surgeons cry when it all goes wrong, have sleepless nights, feel any guilt?After more than thirty years in the profession, and twenty-five as a consultant, Kevin Lafferty tells it all.Cutting It is a brutally authentic account of a life in surgery. Heart-warming, hugely informative, tragic, funny, and shatteringly sad in equal measure, it's an unforgettable read. _____"A candid and insightful book, warts and all. As a fellow surgeon, 'Cutting It' had me in stitches at times." - Lord Ribeiro "A triumph. Not a word is wasted, not a page fails to entertain and enlighten... easily one of the great books on surgery." - Alex Wade