it's a hassan a. tetteh and it's a novel, a 150-page novel called "gifts of the heart." are you dr.legant in this book? >> no, i'm not. no, i'm not. i think at times when i, you know, i read my character's sort of attributes and his qualities, i wish and aspire that i could be, you know, like him sometimes. there are certain things that, you know, i certainly had the privilege and fortune in my career to have the opportunity that sort of rise to the occasion of some of his feats. >> who is he in the book and how close does this come to your story? >> it does come, you know, come fairly close. i, you know -- i relied on a lot of my experience from, you know, my practice, my experiences in the hospital. life experiences, as well, to sort of come up with the character. so there are definitely some parallels but there is certainly some differences as well, you know, for example, my mom is still alive, fortunately. my dad has passed away. >> was he from ghana? >> yes, sir. >> and was your mother from sierra leone? >> she was, yes. >> and what measure of lebanon ancestry got into that? >>

. >> this week on "q&a," surgeon dr. hassan tetteh discusses his medical career, his service in afghanistan and his new book titled "gifts of the heart." >> dr. hassan tetteh, you told me just before we sat down that you did a heart transplant overnight. explain that. >> while the transplant is a big team effort. i was not the one responsible, but i was part of the team. i was the e, procuring team. so myself and some of the team embers flew out of state to retrieve and harvest the heart and bring it back to a patient in need. a long night. you have to go? >> midwest? >> you live in town. >> yes, sir. of the was the condition person you got the heart? obviously dead. story. always a tragic typically young person because hey're the most ideal candidates for organ transplants, the heart. motor vehicle accidents in this that's typically what it is. some common denominator of all the donors bring death. hat's ultimately what they succumb to. they become candidates for work and donation. so in this case, a motor vehicle accident and a trau

national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] "q&a," surgeon dr. hassan tetteh discusses his medical career, his service in afghanistan and his new book i'm a "gifts of the heart." tetteh, you told me just before we sat down that you did a heart transplant overnight. explain that. >> while the transplant is a big team effort. i was not the one responsible, but i was part of the team.

. >> this week on "q&a," surgeon dr. hassan tetteh discusses his medical career, his service in afghanistan and his new book titled "gifts of the heart." >> dr. hassan tetteh, you told me just before we sat down that you did a heart transplant overnight. explain that. >> while the transplant is a big

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] "q&a," surgeon dr. hassan tetteh discusses his medical career, his service in afghanistan and his new book i'm a "gifts of the heart." tetteh, you told me just before we sat down that you did a heart transplant overnight. explain that. >> while the transplant is a big team effort. i was not the one responsible, but i was part of the team. i was part of the procuring team. myself and some of our team members will out-of-state to retrieve and harvest a heart and bring it back to a patient. it was a long night. go?ow far did you have to >> midwest. >> you live here in town. >> yes or. >> what was the condition of the person you apart from? obviously dead. >> unfortunately, it is always a tragic story. typically a young person because those are the most ideal candidates for organ transplants. motor vehicle accident in this case. that is typically what it is. some common denominator among all of the donors is that they have a brain death. that is what they succumb to and that is when they become candidates for organ donat

he was a lebanese businessman that had migrated or done some business in sierra leone. >> your name is hassan tetteh, but you say you started out as a roman catholic. where does the name come from? >> my grandfather. >> it was his name? so you were born in brooklyn, where did you go to school along the way? >> my parents were both born in west africa as you mentioned. my dad would always muse and say that i was made in the usa. i like to specifically pledge allegiance to brooklyn. i think it is a very interesting place to grow up and one that builds a lot of character. it makes a lot of characters. [laughter] i went to catholic school for most of elementary. i transferred in middle school to a public system. i went to brooklyn technical high school. it was an amazing experience, great high school. i recently went back for career day. we have a huge alumni network, we graduate over 1000 individuals every year. great friends from that experience in high school. we still to this day keep in touch. then i went to a small arts and sciences college. the background behind that is interesting because i, lik

a," and surgeon dr. hessan tettah discusses his metal career, his service in afghanistan, and his new book titled "gifts of the heart." >> dr. hassan tettehyou told me just before we sat down that you did a heart transplant overnight, explain that.

a privilege to share your proceedings began. thank you. [cheers and applause] order. >> today.your hassan tettehdiscusses his book, "gifts of the heart" come a fictional story of a military doc during afghanistan. the forward operating base. the day we arrived at the new surgical team to take over and our colleagues that are going to be leaving their. we saw first in the real casualties but i remember perfectly. it is a young marine who had been injured by an ied, a live explosive device. the young man -- i take one quick step back and say, you know, i wasn't kidding when i say berkeley was a formative place to grow up in. it was also a formative place to train. i thought i have seen average, possible. gunshot wins, stab wounds, explosive injuries even. motor vehicle accidents. i felt very comfortable with my level of experience or trauma based on my book kings county experience and so forth. the first day that we were there it is so hard to describe because even though it did not ball to read for years before deploying and seeing individuals with the extremity injuries and prosthetics and some