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Grab Some Popcorn! Dr. Fedak Is Ted Talking!

By Adam Pick on February 17, 2019

I'm a big fan of Dr. Paul Fedak from Calgary.

If you have not heard that name before... Dr. Fedak is a well-respected surgeon, an inventor, a big-time researcher of bicuspid aortic valves, and an ongoing supporter of this community.

Dr. Paul Fedak

Plus, Dr. Fedak is a super nice guy who often shares his personal feelings about his role as a heart surgeon and his passion for heart surgery. For example, you may have seen his video about the past, present and future of heart surgery.

So... When I learned that Dr. Fedak was going to be featured on a Ted Talk, I grabbed a bag of pre-popped popcorn (no joke) and clicked the play button on the video below.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the video.

"Your health is a very special gift. We like to think it's our default setting but it's not. You see death is our default setting. Health should not be an expectation you will not always be healthy. But the good news is we have innovative ways to fight back."
"If you watch a master surgeon performing with an expert team it's like this beautiful coordinated dance. Its smooth and it flows. If you watch a trainee performing with the master it's like two people having sex in a canoe!"
"From my master teachers I learned things like unwavering discipline, perseverance and grit. And the most important – courage. The courage to act. Surgery is about making a courageous decision and acting on it. It's courageous action."
"When you start dancing with the mastery of heart surgery. You can become intuitive and you can apply your skills to problems you've never seen before. You can conjure up some kind of unconscious competence. You stop tempting nature and you become a part of nature."
"In the pursuit of mastery I had only focused on a person's heart and now I could better appreciate the heart of the person. After a taste of mastery, I wasn't operating on the person I was operating for the person. Now my connection [to my patients] is deeper."
"I mentioned the courage it takes to be a surgeon now imagine the courage it takes to be the patient! The courage they find and the trust they give us makes heart surgery the greatest privilege."

I hope you enjoyed Dr. Fedak's Ted Talk as much as I did. To get more insights about heart surgery from Dr. Fedak, here are some of his recent contributions to HeartValveSurgery.com:

On behalf of our community, thanks so much to Dr. Fedak his ongoing pursuit of healthy hearts and healthy heart valves!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

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Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

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