I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Hassan Tetteh at the 2013 Champions for Kids Conference in Fayetteville, AR just last week. As a cardiothoracic surgeon specializing in heart and lung transplants, he is going to be featured next week on Dec. 1 on CSPAN for a Q & A with Brian Lamb on his new book ““Gifts of the Heart,” a fictional story of a military physician in Afghanistan.
Dr. Tetteh describes his just stepping off an overnight flight at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. He participated in a surgery to remove a heart from a traumatic automobile accident victim in the Midwest and accompanied the organ to the Washington, DC area for transplant surgery. Tetteh describes how a heart transplant actually works. He details the amount of time needed for a heart transplant operation to be successful and talks about the average cost of such recovery and procurement surgery. Dr. Tetteh suggests that portions of his life story are mirrored through the characters in “Gifts of the Heart.” It is the story of a young military physician and surgeon who comes of age in a desert base in Afghanistan. He describes his own childhood growing up in Brooklyn and talks about his acceptance to medical school and his time as a U.S. Navy Commander. He speaks with emotion about his time in Afghanistan, and on the USS Carl Vinson. He suggests that even doctors can experience shell shock from treating the trauma of injuries in war. In addition, he talks about his writing style and his various activities here in Washington.
Tune into CSPAN on Dec. 1, at 8PM/11PM E.T. for the full Q & A with Dr. Hassan Tetteh!
Bio: Dr. Hassan A. Tetteh was born in Brooklyn. He attended SUNY Plattsburgh, and in 1998 graduated from SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Tetteh joined the U.S. Navy and remains an active commander. In 2005, he served on the USS Carl Vinson and in 2011 he was deployed to Afghanistan as a trauma surgeon in a forward operating base in Helmand province. He currently is a cardiothoracic heart surgeon at INOVA Fairfax Hospital and the assistant professor of surgery at Howard University and the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md. He specializes in heart and lung transplants. He lives in D.C. with his wife and two children.
