Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science [Paperback]

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 theatre. 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"'Gawande draws you in with the story but leaves you wiser about science, about health, and even about the human condition.' Michael Kinsley 'Ever wondered how realistic ER is? Then read Gawande's superb book. The truth, you will find, is far more compelling, though the endings are never as neat...Gawande makes the scenes far more dramatic than television ever can. He is a first-class writer.' Scotland on Sunday 'Written as tautly as a thriller.' The Observer 'I don't know if Atul Gawande was born to be a surgeon - I very much suspect so - but he was certainly born to write. This wise and exciting account of life as a surgical resident...perfectly captures the wonder and fearful responsibility that come with cutting people open in the hope of making them whole again.' Bill Bryson"

'I don't know if Atul Gawande was born to be a surgeon -- I very much suspect so -- but he was certainly born to write. This wise and exciting account of life as a surgical resident...perfectly captures the wonder and fearful responsibility that come with cutting people open in the hope of making them whole again.' Bill Bryson 'Ever wondered how realistic ER is? Then read Gawande's superb book. The truth, you will find, is far more compelling, though the endings are never as neat. ...Gawande makes the scenes far more dramatic than television ever can. He is a first-class writer.' Scotland on Sunday 'Gawande draws you in with the story but leaves you wiser about science, about health, and even about the human condition.' Michael Kinsley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

This is a stunningly well-written account of the life of a surgeon: what it is like to cut into people's bodies and the terrifying - literally life and death - decisions that have to be made.There are accounts of operations that go wrong; of doctors who go to the bad; why autopsies are necessary; what it feels like to insert your knife into someone.

Atul Gawande is a staff member of Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the New Yorker magazine. He is also Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.