by:
Atul Gawande Average Rating:
Product Description:Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. Medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers.
Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human.
--Rob Lightner
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Strongly recommended
I have read Dr. Gawande's articles in the New Yorker for several years, and was excited to get my hands on this book, which has lived up to my expectations. Subject matter aside, he is an exceptional writer.
Dr. Gawande draws the reader into the 'behind the scenes' of medicine without being the least bit salacious or exploitative. He, more than most other medical writers, is able to convey the feeling of 'being the doctor' and how fascinating and agonizing this can sometimes be. Dr. Gawande's ...
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Wonderful Insight
Gawande does a superb job of showing how modern medicine isn't the exact cut and dry science that we wish it to be. By taking various surgical cases and placing them into a new light, he creates short stories that are both antedotal and a exciting to read. From chronic pain to supersitions, Gawande gives wonderful insight into broad topics.
I always find myself starting novels, but never finishing them--that's what's nice about the short story approach--each chapter is a separate case or story ...
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Excellent
This book was on my "suggested" reading list for my first year of medical school. I was dreading this list, so I started with this book first. I was extremely surprised to find this book easy to read, entertaining, and enlightening. I managed to read it in less than a day, and it left me with many impression on what to really expect when I undergo my training as a physician and beyond when I am really going to be expected to be a machine.
