Real-life adventures of the ‘Vetman’

Aradhika Sharma

This is a heart-warming, funny and positive first-person account written by England’s leading neuro-orthopaedic veterinary surgeon, Noel Fitzpatrick. It traces his journey from Ballyfin, a village in Ireland, to the creation of a state-of-the-art neurosurgery and orthopedic clinic in Surrey, England, where, he with his team of more than a 100 persons, use a range of bionics, engineering and mechanics to create a new life for seriously ill pets. Fitzgerald is well known in the UK, where he has been presenting a TV series that showcases him and his staff treating hard-to-cure ailments with advanced care and surgical procedures. Usually, these are accompanied by touching stories about the animal and its human family. Dr Noel Fitzpatrick is popularly known as The Bionic Vet; his popular programme, The Supervet, has been on UK’s Channel 4 since 2014. 

Fitzpatrick hails from modest beginnings. His father was a farmer and his mother controlled the home that consisted of six children and many animals. Like his father, Noel was a true son of the soil but his resolve to become a vet came early, at the age of 10, when one freezing night he failed to save a lamb at birth. “On that fateful night that defined the course of my entire life, you (the lamb) have taught me humility as well as the highest possible aspirations.” His aim — to be able to fit bionic limbs — crystallised when his Uncle Paul’s wooden limb got knocked off the boat where it had been unstrapped and floated off down River Shannon. “I thought it was utterly stupid that poor old Uncle Paul had to put up with all pain, infection and inconvenience.” Later in the book, Fitzpatrick shares interesting technical details about how he creates innovative prostheses for animals.

The book, that has the merits of good narrative, plot and language, and is motivational in its progression, would be especially pleasing to animal lovers who regard their pets as their children and treat them with respect and devotion. In Fitzgerald's book, the animals that paved his path to becoming Supervet are as significant as the people. The readers are introduced to cows and calves, sheep and lambs, scrawny cats and sheepdog pups, chattering parrots and, of course, his favourite Keira (named after actor, Keira Knightly) the dishevelled border terrier who has been his constant companion. Fitzpatrick narrates the highs and lows of his life with typical Irish humour and candour. He's quite unabashed about sharing the travails in his personal life, describing the episodes of bullying at school that made his years there miserable, but which egged him on to do exceedingly well in academics. He admits that the time he devoted to his animals impacted his love life "So, for example, while I have been fixing a dog, a girl I loved has been in bed with someone else. That's a bitter pill to swallow - and yet I can see it from her point of view. Why should she put up with always being second best to a dog or a cat in a crisis?" The book is reminiscent of James Herriot's veterinary adventures which he described in his excellent books like All Things Bright and Beautiful and All Creatures Great and Small. Still, the accounts of the life of a country veterinarian, is quite different from the life of Fitzpatrick, who founded the Humanimal Trust in 2014 to "actively pursue the convergence of human and animal healthcare." 

When little, Fitzgerald had invented a superhero called the ‘Vetman’ to save himself from the school bullies. The ‘Vetman’ could “fly off and save the broken animals”. However, while most superhero fantasies fade away with time, being the ‘Vetman’ is a dream that Fitzpatrick fulfilled.