Bodily Fluids

The Greek physician Hippocrates believed the human body contained blood, phlegm, and bile-and that health depended on keeping them in balance. After nearly five decades on the NHS frontline, senior cardiologist Liam Hughes knows a thing or two about bodily fluids. Expanding Hippocrates' list to include sweat, tears, urine, solid waste, and "spunk" (fortitude), he uses this framework to tell the story of a lifetime in medicine-its triumphs, frustrations, absurdities, and moments of profound humanity. From a terminal patient pleading for a "Brompton cocktail" to end his suffering, to the on-call surgeon who impales himself on a shooting stick, to the consultant who rams a police car to save a life, Hughes captures the grit, humor, and moral challenges of hospital life. By turns moving, irreverent, and outrageously funny, Bodily Fluids is both a love letter to medicine and a sharp critique of the system that sustains it-a doctor's unflinching, deeply human look at what it means to heal, hurt, and hope.