Complications
By Atul Gawande
- Release Date: 2003-04-01
- Genre: Medical
Description
A brilliant and courageous doctor reveals, in gripping accounts of true cases, the power and limits of modern medicine.
Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is -- complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human.
Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He also shows us what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. Gawande offers a richly detailed portrait of the people and the science, even as he tackles the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives.
At once tough-minded and humane, Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties that lie at the heart of modern medicine, yet always alive to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor.
Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.
Reviews
Great
5By Lane Christian“You have to be smart enough to know how stupid you are.” Author embodies this in the best manner possible. You can tell he’s a empathetic, caring, and very intellectual man, yet instead of arrogance, it has bred humility, which is the greatest tool of the wise for it gives them discernment. Great book, awesome guy!Very Interesting and Honest
4By Long legionThis is a book that was written with great honesty and empathy. The topics were interesting and eye opening. Anyone interested in what doctors really think and struggle with would enjoy Complications very muchSimply brilliant!
5By BennybrakA brutally honest compendium of a surgeon's experiences. You should definitely read this book!A physicians perspective
5By scapula0002A refreshing book indicating that physicians are human at making unforced errors. Although this percentage is low, but looking at the big picture, they are far far from being perfect.Need more stars
5By TuuppariVery rarely have I come across a book with the depth, intelligence, human touch, humility and perspectives such as Complications has. I wish there would be special exception in the rating system for this kind of cases: I think Complications deserves 6 stars. Gawande's insights into the medicine, doctors and patients will broaden your mind permanently.
