On Call

Stories of life, death and bravery by a Kiwi female general surgeon

'Ruthlessly honest and viscerally beautiful. The book I wish I had read as a medical student.' Emma Espiner

It's all in a mad day's work: the good, the bad and the crazy. From a man who swallowed fishhooks to a patients playing pranks, emergency operations in the wee hours, constantly being mistaken for a nurse, and holding hands through silent goodbyes, this is a book about the strange, messy, intense world of surgery.

When Ineke's parents in Samoa fall ill, she is torn between her roles as a surgeon, a daughter, and a single working mother. Are the sacrifices of a life in scrubs worth it? Laugh-out-loud and sobering in equal turns, On Call is a memoir from inside the operating room and everything it takes to survive.

About the Author

Ineke Meredith was born in New Zealand to parents of mixed-Samoan heritage. She spent part of her childhood in Samoa but moved to New Zealand after winning a scholarship to study medicine. She graduated from the Otago Medical School, Dunedin, in 2003 with an MBChB, and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2014. In 2015, she commenced her subspecialty training in breast cancer and reconstruction, and spent time in New Zealand, Sydney, UK and Paris.

Now a General Surgeon with a subspecialty interest in breast cancer and breast reconstruction, Ineke is working and living between New Zealand and Paris. She has published research articles in international peer-reviewed medical journals on breast cancer and reconstruction, cancer rates among Pacific peoples in New Zealand, and has participated in international collaboratives on cancer rates in diaspora. She is formerly a lecturer for the Wellington Medical School in New Zealand and a member of the clinical advisory group for the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand. She also founded and runs Fur Love, a dog skin and body care business. Ineke started to write patient stories in her early consultancy, both as a testament to patients and as catharsis after difficult days on call.