IN his latest book, Surgical Tales, surgeon Paul Anderson opens with a gripping retelling of a terrorist attack in Cape Town, South Africa – an experience that nearly cost him his life. Surgical Tales, Anderson’s sixth book, promises a blend of compelling narratives, insightful anecdotes, and plenty of humour, drawn from his diverse experiences working and teaching around the globe.

The book begins with a harrowing account of an attack on a church, where terrorists armed with AK-47s and grenades unleashed chaos. Reflecting on this life-altering event, Anderson quips, “There is a moral to the story: never have an argument with your wife, or you might end up going to church and getting shot.”

Anderson is no stranger to tackling intense subjects. His previous medical thriller, Does it Hurt to Die, which addresses the aftermath of the attack and his journey through PTSD, garnered international acclaim and was even slated for a film adaptation.

In his early years in Ōpōtiki, Anderson reflects on his mother, a teacher, and how he studied philosophy and psychology at Waikato University, where he also excelled in rugby, representing New Zealand Universities, and earning a place in the New Zealand Junior All Blacks. His quest for knowledge and experience led him to London, Cambridge, Glasgow, and California, but it was in South Africa that he honed his skills as a liver transplant surgeon.

“I ended up at University of Cape Town, where Chris Barnard [who performed the world first heart transplant] was still floating around.”

Groote Schuur and Somerset Hospitals in Cape Town, where he was a senior vascular registrar, exposed the young doctor to a whole new level of medical trauma with patients arriving with an array of injuries – shootings, stabbings, and some other unusual conditions – a stark contrast to New Zealand.

Following his time in South Africa, and suffering PTSD following the terrorist attack, Anderson moved to Adelaide, Australia, where he became one of the first surgeons to specialise in bariatric weight-loss surgery.

His commitment to medicine extends beyond his clinical practice. While in Adelaide, he founded the charity Specialists Without Borders, which aimed to provide free medical education in developing countries.

“We took free medical education to developing countries. The first country we went to was Rwanda and that was just after the genocide. And I kept doing that for a couple of weeks each year. I was working in a hospital on the Congolese border and so there are lots of funny stories about what happened down there.”

Among the lighter tales are his eye-popping experiences during medical training, including his unusual side hustle of harvesting eyes from cadavers to fund his education.  

He reflects on some patients from his early career as a junior doctor who remain etched in his memory, recounting bizarre encounters in the emergency department that include a flashing vibrating dildo and a live mouse. “Don’t worry, the mouse survived.”  

Anderson eventually returned to New Zealand, but not one to sit still, he trialed a totally new concept – a Specialist Review Clinic – enabling quicker assessments for patients in the public health system who might have to wait up to a year to see a specialist.

“It was great fun putting the book together. It is just hilarious, you know, reliving some of the experiences.”

Anderson has written two other medical drama thrillers, Old Lovers Don’t die and Let Him Die, romance novel Love Cuts Deeper than a Scalpel, and a weight-loss book, Fat Off- the right way.

Surgical Tales is available on Amazon and is on special at the moment at Paper Plus Whakatāne for $22.