WEBVTT

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Of course, like everything
else, heart surgery

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has its funny side.

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And some time
after the operation

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in the middle of the night,
the six-inch wound in my chest

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opened up.

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Regrettably, it was
a Saturday night.

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And at that point, I was living
in South London, in Brixton.

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And the nearest
casualty ward was

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in a hospital that was known
then and now as a war zone.

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And you would only be seen
if you really were serious,

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if you'd had an ax in your
head, or something like that.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Anyway, "A & E."

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It was like wetting
the bed, waking up

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that night soaked through,
my sutures open again

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and the chest
wound hemorrhaging.

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Pulling on jeans
and an overcoat,

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I called a car to
Camberwell and,

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in through the
shivering rubber doors,

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presented myself that Saturday
night abattoir of casualty

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at King's on Denmark Hill.

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At this front line, behind
her desk and barred window,

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the triage nurse was
already waving me away

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till I parted the
tweed and showed her

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what I had going on underneath.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Unfashionable, but
striking nonetheless.

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My chest undone like
some rare waistcoat

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with that laced-up
front, a black, a shell,

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its red, wet look, leatherette,
those fancy flapping lapels.

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[LAUGHTER]