Ineke Meredith

We are delighted to share with you an interview with Ineke Meredith, author of On Call

'Ruthlessly honest and viscerally beautiful. The book I wish I had read as a medical student.

- Emma Espiner

The world of surgery is strange, messy and intense. From a man presenting with fishhooks in his stomach to being punched in the face by a patient, it's all in a mad day's work for a female general surgeon. Even with emergency operations in the wee hours and constantly being mistaken for a nurse, there are still moments of laughter and tenderness amid the chaos.

When Ineke's parents in Samoa fall ill, she becomes torn between her roles as a surgeon, a daughter and a single working mother, leading her to ask: are the sacrifices of a life in scrubs worth it?

This is an extraordinary memoir from inside the operating room about the heart it takes to survive.

Why do you think it is important for people to read your book?

Because it is the truth. Because the patients that come through the door can be totally different when they exit. They go through a lot. Their families go through a lot. Surgeons and medical staff go through a lot. The families of surgeons and medical staff go through a lot. Everyone who reads this book will think of someone they know and they will be enlightened for having read the book.

What is the best thing about being a surgeon or working in healthcare?

The ability to make positive change in one’s life, to help someone whose life is in danger, to get someone to a point where they feel like they can enjoy life again.

What is the hardest thing about being a surgeon or working in healthcare?

There is not enough time, nor resource. Something has to give.

What inspired you to write this book?

I started writing On Call as a catharsis. My mother was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer when I had just become a new consultant after years of training. As she journeyed through surgery, then chemotherapy, metastatic disease and more chemotherapy, I was caring for others and accompanying them on their journeys.

I started writing stories about the patients that I was seeing. The funny, the good, but mostly the bad. Because this is really what we carry. The stories were important to me, because as a family member of someone terminally ill, I realised that as a surgeon we only see a tiny snapshot of someone’s life, and actually we only see the patient. The patient is someone’s wife, or husband, someone’s mother, or daughter and a terminal diagnosis impacts everyone in that ecosystem. It can tear families apart. I wrote because people that we see are part of bigger stories, and I didn’t want to forget that. In fact, you can’t forget a lot of them. Cancer patients go through a lot and their journeys are tough.

One of the things that also inspired me to write On Call was the simple fact that the vast majority of surgical memoirs have been written by male surgeons, many of whom portray a godliness in the profession which might have existed at another moment but prevails no longer. Furthermore, female surgeons in particular have a reputation of being cold, for many reasons. This could not be further from the truth.

What do you say to young women who want to become surgeons?

I say do it. But find a champion. Find someone who supports you. Find your network. Don’t be a shrinking violet.