After the initial shock of being told that he needed open heart surgery, Ben's thoughts quickly turned to practical matters.
He was self-employed and lived by the "No show, no dough" principle. Not working could quickly have repercussions that he needed to plan for.
He wanted to be able to give people who would be affected some sort of an idea of what to expect while he recovered. And recover he would. He had no doubt about that. When you have an idea of what to expect, you can handle adversity a whole lot more effectively.
All he needed was to have general guidelines to three simple questions:
- What should he expect?
- What could he do to speed up a recovery?
- And how long was he really likely to be out of action for?
He expected standard answers to be readily available. The success rate was encouragingly high - way over ninety per cent - and it was performed hundreds of thousands of times a year around the globe. It would be bizarre if there wasn't a well-established set of standards by now.

But there wasn't.
Or at least there wasn't one he could find, no matter how hard he looked. And the more he looked and asked for it, the more vague was the answer. "It's complicated. It depends."
"How To Recover From Open Heart Surgery" was written for the hundreds of thousands of people who will find themselves in a similar position this year. They need to know that they are not alone.
A novel based on true events, the story traces an absorbing journey of misguided expectations, frustration, joy, camaraderie and the emotional roller coaster as Ben sought to achieve a 'recovery' by HIS definition.
The material at the back of the book includes a page of suggested discussion points for Reading Groups
Feedback from readers and reviewers include heart-warming comments about how the story has helped to explain events affecting loved ones that they were 'protected' from when they were small children.

"This will be immensely reassuring to anyone going through this experience."
"Enthralling.' I didn't want to put it down. Everyone knows somebody who has had similar fears."
"Hugely encouraging and enlightening."
"Great to highlight this, so other families will know what to expect."
"As 'a story' I was eager to find out what lay ahead in the journey; as 'an education' I was keen to get a better understanding to the whole experience, and having read it I feel like I would have so much more empathy / be more effective
My father died from a heart attack when I was just 11 and he was just 40. He had gone through open heart surgery twice and one of my lasting memories of him is somewhat bizarrely the huge zip scar on his chest that went from neck to waist line . Both my brother and I were kept at arms length from everything. It helps to fill a little gap and strangely brings me closer to the memory of my father. I am not sure if this make any sense to me never mind anyone else, other than it helped at a different level"
"My dad had a valve replace some 25 years ago. He wouldn't tell us why he needed it...so from early on the book was relevant to me too"
"I do believe it would be beneficial for someone facing the same ordeal but it also works as a great story."
About the Author: Born in Liverpool, UK, Steve was named by a public vote in the bar of a pub in North Wales. After an enjoyable education where 'satisfactory' results reflected his passion and aptitude for sport, he started his working life training as an account in London, UK. His interest in audit soon waned and he changed jobs, only to be made redundant while he was on holiday. So he followed his childhood dream, trained as a schoolmaster and moved into a position in the glorious World Heritage City of Bath, UK. After a fairly rapid rise through the ranks he took his first major career gamble and accepted a 50% pay cut and an 85% reduction in holidays to move into the burgeoning personal computing industry. It worked. It was quickly evident that there was an enormous gap between the technical specialists and the desires of their customers to have something useable. Steve's particular skills and values were well suited to fill the role of mutual translator, specialising in making systems work for businesses across all sorts of sectors. It meant learning every day of his life, which he loves. At a party one day, he realised that his time with clients meant that he was missing out on his children growing up. So took another career gamble. He resigned and went self-employed. So FlatBear was born and, as part of with it, a plan to develop an internet based publishing arm. There followed years of study, investigation, wistful dreaming and ennui. The day job was working well and the indie publishing dream waned. He was shocked into action in 2013 and the result was a series of books under the name of Barney Hegarty, written to learn and trial the publishing process. That broke the "one day it will happen" barrier. Receiving his very first payment for international sales changed the game. He was hooked. He wrote and published "Reboot For The Worn Out Professional," a book he had been planning for years after seeing colleagues suffering burnout and stress in their high intensity jobs. One day it turned out he had a heart defect. He went through open heart surgery, where a truckload of beliefs and presumptions were first shattered then realigned. The novel "How To Recover From Open Heart Surgery" is the direct result. At the time of writing he still lives in Bath. It has been easier to base himself there and travel the world than to continually move around after the work. Apart from that, it's beautiful. He is still married to the woman he wed in 1982. She's beautiful as well.