About this title: A book about medicine that reads like a thriller, "Complications" is "a uniquely soulful book about the science of mending bodies" (Adam Gopnik, author of "From Paris to the Moon").
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Picador USA
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780312421700ISBN:0312421702
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Covers have creases and curled edges, small tear at top edge of last four pages BUT NO MARKS FOUND on lightly tanned pages. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780805063196ISBN:0805063196
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Very Good. 0312421702 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light discoloration due to aging and other light wear. read more
Description: Good. 2003-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Picador USA
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780312421700ISBN:0312421702
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Minor corner curling. Minor fanning of front cover, One, small, crease on back cover. Text is clean and bright. Binding is tight. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 288 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"This is a fascinating book about the doctors and their decisions, patients and theirs, and if you're someone who worries about being the 5% of people who have X reaction to Y drug, this is not the book for you. This is a book about instinct and hunches as much about science, and it would give anyone pause, I think, to consider how little science is employed in hospitals, and how medicine is an art. That said, the book also has much to say about the things we can do to heal the human body that we couldn't fifty years. The story about saving a young woman's leg from "flesh-eating bacteria" is perhaps the best demonstration of this, but even everyday acts like intubation are revealed as a thousand times more precise right now than they have been before. I can only wonder where we'll be in another fifty years.
My favorite parts of the book were, predictably, in the second section, titled 'Mystery'. There Gawande probes the causes of nausea, overeating, and SIDS as a means of demonstrating the inventiveness of disease and the challenges facing humans fighting illness, as well as asking who - doctor or patient - should make decisions about a person's body. Nothing too gruesome here - those of you familiar with my fondness for stories about people scratching through to their brains have nothing to worry about in reading this.
(I have the feeling that I've read most of the stuff in this book before, but I have no recollection of reading the book itself. Still, that has a bearing on the number of stars I gave the book - on a first pass, I would probably have gone four. It's possible (even probable) that after reading a first essay by Gawande in The New Yorker I then went back through the archives and read everything else. If so, curses on my curiosity and access to EBSCOhost.)"
"Atul Gawande explains in the intro that his book is divided into three parts: One, the fallibility of doctors; Two, on medical mysteries (e.g. chronic back pain but no physical injury evident); Three, on uncertainty. My favorite chapters where the last ones in the Uncertainty section. Dr. Gawande describes cases where the "human" element was necessary. In other words, these were cases that went against mathematical logic and even some evidence based medicine. But the doctors had a hunch, and followed it, and these cases were the zebras, the exceptions, and the doctors were correct. He also explores medical ethics the most in the section, specifically the role of the doctor in patient education regarding medical choices that are not clear.
Maybe it's because I'm a biased doctor in training, but the fallibility of doctors was my least favorite section :-). I think it was not the content that I didn't like, more the fact that we hear about this stuff a lot during school and Dr. Gawande's points didn't seem too original (they may have been when he published the book?).
A good book, but maybe not one to read before you're (or a loved one) heading into surgery :-)."
"Dear Bill Bryson -- Next time you'd like to have lunch with a like-minded writer who loves the backstory, the implications, the big picture, and the human element in crafting an engrossing story, I recommend you call up Atul Gawande.
Bill, I think Atul is a guy after your own heart. He loves the telling of a good story that often gently delivers a moral lesson, and Atul also obviously cares about the people he writes about.
And, since Atul's field -- medicine, and surgery in particular -- is so different from the stories you've told, Bill, I think you'd find him a fascinating luncheon companion. I don't recommend the retelling of his encounter with flesh-eating bacteria (that was scary and gross) over your entrees, but his experiences with the cloistered brotherhood of surgeons, patients staring down the worst moments of their lives, and his own humbling experiences as a parent in the ER and ICU with ill children are fascinating.
And, Bill, after you've had your lunch with Atul, make sure you have your friends read his book too. They'll thank you for it."
"Atul Gawande writes an amusing, incredibly honest and eye-opening account about his experiences as a resident, cutting his teeth on the various patients who come through the emergency door.
Gawande makes an earnest and sincere appeal to the reader to understand that to become an excellent surgeon, a resident must first gain experience by actually performing surgeries on live patients. Using anecdotes and hard facts, Gawande is honest about his successes and failures as a resident , as well as the medical community on the whole. He acknowledges that modern medicine is still rather primitive but that advances are being made every day. And doctors are only human, in the end.
A wonderful account, that reads very well with little to no medical jargon to confuse the reader. Some of the stories were rather slow and not that interesting, but most were incredibly fascinating. The reader will learn and realize things about the medicial profession that will scare them but at the same time make them better informed future-patients."
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