Bodily Fluids

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Five decades of blood, phlegm and bile on the hospital frontline ‘Drama and humanity laced with humour both subtle and lurid’ Samer Nashef, author of The Naked Surgeon The Greek ph ysician Hippocrates thought the human body contained blood, phlegm and bile. In the right balance, these fluids produced health; if not, pain. Liam Hughes is very familiar with bodily fluids. He spent nearly five decades on the NHS frontline, ultimately as a senior cardiologist. Extending the Hippocratic list to include sweat, tears, urine, solid waste and spunk (fortitude), he uses this framework to tell his own story of the highs and lows of hospital life. The terminal patient begging for a ‘Brompton cocktail’ to end his suffering; the loathsome on-call surgeon who impales himself on a shooting-stick; the selfless consultant who rams a police car to save a patient’s life: all shape Hughes’ strong sense of what the medical calling should and should not entail. By turns moving, instructive, hilarious and outrageous, Bodily Fluids also expresses its author’s anxiety about the state of our health service – and offers a bold prescription for the way forward. ‘Dr Hughes masterfully weaves together elements of suspense, drama, humanity, all of it laced with a substantial load of humour, both subtle and lurid. What is most striking, however, is his unwavering dedication to his patients’ Samer Nashef, author of The Naked Surgeon ‘Within the first few pages we encounter a consultant lying on the hospital floor, emitting the eponymous fluids from both ends of his gastrointestinal tract; a new father who faints at the sight of his offspring emerging, cracks his head and dies; and a handy guide to bleeding. If this sounds like grim reading, it’s not, because Hughes narrates it all with wit and warmth, interspersing human stories with sober reflection on what the medical profession has become, and what’s wrong with the NHS today’ Rosa Silverman, Daily Telegraph Paperback: 320pp Published: Eye (February 2026) ISBN: 9781785634314 Show more