Open heart surgery can save your life — but it can quietly put your brain and kidneys at risk.

Many patients wake up from surgery confused or forgetful, with inflammation in the brain now known to be a likely cause of delirium.

Dr Simon Iles knows this firsthand. As a young ICU doctor, he collapsed at work and suddenly became the patient — surviving emergency heart surgery but waking up unable to remember his own mother's phone number.

Now, Professor Yugeesh Lankadeva and his team at The Florey are developing a potential disease-modifying therapy — using a carefully formulated compound related to vitamin C — to protect the brain and kidneys before damage begins.

It's hope for thousands of patients to not just survive heart surgery, but keep living with their minds and bodies intact.