Total Page : 269
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
Publication Date : 2002 04 04
>> A Must Read for Every Doctor and anyone who has been is or will be a patient
I have read a lot of Dr Gawande s research and his book Complications is a great guide for the layman to understand why things often go wrong in medicine Dr Gawande does a great job at de jargonizing and unpacking the medical field so that anyone can understand why medicine is so complicated This book doesn t necessarily contain the answers see Gawande s books The Checklist Manifesto and Better for solutions but does a great job of laying out the problems Medicine is complicated and doctors are mere humans While it is easy to develop a system for dealing with machines humans are dynamic and every situation is unique No matter how much we may want to quantify a particular situation in medicine to lead us to the right answer it just cannot be done as every patient has his or her own set of circumstances and desires
>> interesting on several levels
the author is a very good writer pick up the book and skim for the anecdotal stories that form the central picture for each chapter just enjoy them as an interesting observation about learning to be a surgeon then read the last chapter the case of the red leg then decide if you want to read the whole book
it is interesting on at least 3 levels the first are these stories the second is the context for the stories the author s reason for seeing these events as important in his life/training not only is he an observant storyteller involving you emotional in his tale but he let s you see inside his head as to why this story and how does it fit but as is usual what really interests me is this high level thinking what makes a good surgeon what makes a good medical system that finds out what is wrong with people and fixes it right essentially the context of his experience of learning to be a surgeon in a hospital the context of the second level
take the last chapter the story is about a lady with a really bad infected leg a story well told persuasive interesting emotional involving it could end there reader s digest style but it doesn t because he writes for the new york times which calls for a bit more thinking thankfully how did the system work how did it almost not work right you know when the medical system doesn t work right people die but it is this 3rd level beyond constructive criticism of the system that fascinates me how exactly did he know these particular bacteria infected the leg and why did he push to demonstrate this knowledge
the way he tells the story he attributes it to that uneasy feeling brought on by a similar case in the recent past but i think it s more than that it is the idea that contrary to our dominate ideas of objective knowledge all knowledge is subjective and is attached to a person as polanyi stated personal knowledge we know more than we can say it is training this intuitive this up close personal who you are type vs what you can speak and consciously think about type that forms this top level how you become a surgeon above and beyond thinking like a surgeon neat philosophy intersects with medicine
>> New Yorker magazine contributor/physican writes like a dream
Dr Gawande is as likeable a physician as we re apt to encounter He is able to put the reader by his side and ON his side in this sometimes uncomfortably realistic examination of the both the wonderment and failures of modern medicine
