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Complications
- A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
- Narrated by: William David Griffith
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's summary
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, why good surgeons go bad. He shows 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 also ponders the human factor that makes saving lives possible.
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.
Critic reviews
"Gawande's sharp eye, crisp prose, and insightful understanding make his book as enjoyable as it is edifying." (Los Angeles Times)
"These exquisitely crafted essays, in which medical subjects segue into explorations of much larger themes, place Gawande among the best in the field." (Publishers Weekly)
"Diagnosis: riveting." (Time)
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In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor - the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients.
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"my neurotic inner monologue"
- By Mom/RN on 06-08-15
By: Matt McCarthy
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Being Mortal
- Medicine and What Matters in the End
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit.
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A Walk through the Valley of the Shadow
- By George on 11-02-14
By: Atul Gawande
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Open Heart
- A Cardiac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table
- By: Stephen Westaby
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death. When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be.
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Fascinating!
- By Jason on 03-09-19
By: Stephen Westaby
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The House of God
- By: Samuel Shem
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and utterly human, The House of God is a mesmerizing and provocative journey that takes us into the lives of Roy Basch and five of his fellow interns at the most renowned teaching hospital in the country.
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First time I started it I hated it...
- By Tamara T. on 01-20-16
By: Samuel Shem
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Hot Lights, Cold Steel
- Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years
- By: Michael J. Collins MD
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Collins decided to become a surgeon, he was totally unprepared for the chaotic life of a resident at a major hospital. A natural overachiever, Collins' success in college and medical school led to a surgical residency at one of the most respected medical centers in the world, the famed Mayo Clinic. But compared to his fellow residents, Collins felt inadequate and unprepared.
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A cut above the rest
- By S. Gilford on 12-19-17
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The Invention of Surgery
- A History of Modern Medicine: From the Renaissance to the Implant Revolution
- By: David Schneider MD
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider's in-depth biography is an encompassing history of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing implant revolution of the 20th century.
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Yup, this is the one you’re looking for...
- By richard clark on 07-19-20
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The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
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Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
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Everything Happens for a Reason
- And Other Lies I've Loved
- By: Kate Bowler
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God's disapproval. At 35, everything in her life seems to point toward "blessing". She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son. Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
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Please give me back the lost hours of my life!
- By Charles on 03-24-19
By: Kate Bowler
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When Breath Becomes Air
- By: Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese - foreword
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated.
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Phenomenal book!
- By A. Potter on 01-16-16
By: Paul Kalanithi, and others
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The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
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It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
What listeners say about Complications
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- T.K.
- 05-31-03
It's about time...
When I finished this audio book, these words came to me: It is about time someone took the mysticism out of the medical community. It gives hope in large doses.
This is a very well written, informative book and very well read by the narrator. As a surgical nurse and patient advocate for 25 years, I have seen a lot and worked with hundreds of surgeons and the entire gamut of every physician type that this author speaks of. Yes, in the early days, with the crazy ones and the fools, I have watched the Good Old Boys Club protect their own even when they knew it was the wrong thing to do. But I have also seen true courage, love for the patients, love for the work, unwavering dedication, astounding skill, beautiful and artistic craftsmanship, and absolute advocacy for a patient's wellbeing.
This book helps the reader rethink the outdated impression that doctors should be deified and thus obeyed unequivocally. That there is as much of a balance of good and bad in the medical community as there is in any community and that, with an educated point of view, knowledge becomes your empowerment to help make the decisions effecting your life. This book instills in the reader the imperative to proactively undertake the partnership we all should have with our doctors regarding our own health care. And most importantly, even when to walk away from the situation if needed and seek out another doctor who will acknowledge the partnership. The doctor/author helps with the reader's understanding that the majority of our doctors/surgeons are, after all, only human and though experts at what they do, are simply doing what we do in our professions every day: do the best you know how with what you have to work with.
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40 people found this helpful
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Overall
- A. Ryan
- 12-05-03
Great book
This is a great and informative book. However, it would be even better unabridged. There is a lot of good stuff left out of this abridged version.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Hasmukh
- 06-08-03
it is a book on science
This is a book on theory and practice of medicine and the philosophy of science that informs them. It would be wrong to read it as a consumer-oriented book. Read in proper light, one is impressed of Dr. Gawande's intellectual honesty and curiosity. It is very well written and very thought provoking.
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21 people found this helpful
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Overall
- psnorb
- 01-18-07
Controlling the Chaos
Wonderfully talented writer who captures the essence of the medical experience. I felt like I was an intern again, once again putting in my first central line. I had flashbacks of various complications that I had seen in my training. Both those complications that taught me to be a better physician, and those that were tragic leaving emotional scars.
The first part of the book where he goes into detail about how malpractice affects physicians and is ineffectual in improving health care should be mandatory reading for all physicians. We will all be sued. It is not a mater of if, but when. Even the most trivial lawsuit has a significant emotional effect on the physician. Somehow the tremendous personal effect of a lawsuit upon a physician is lost among the general population.
Another wonderful part of the book is the extended follow up that he has with some of the surgical patients.
My only regret was that this was an abridged version. Still I give it 5 stars.
I anxiously await the authors next book "Better" that comes out this spring. For more from this author you should read the commencement speech he gave at Harvard Medical School's graduation 2005.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Suzan
- 05-18-03
Don't Listen To This Before Having Surgery
It's disturbing to realize that doctors are usually guessing when they diagnose and treat a patient. According to Dr. Gawande, whether you leave the operating room alive depends more on luck than on the skill of the doc. who's cutting you open. I'm not sure how doctors justify their exhorbitant fees or enormous egos if all they are doing half the time is spitballing. I've had loved ones in the ICU who nearly died because a doctor made an unlucky guess, and listening to this audiobok didn't improve my already jaundiced opinion of the medical profession. As a collection of horror stories "Complications" is mildly interesting, but is bogged down in tiresome detail and medical jargon. The reader has a pleasant voice but lacks conviction in his delivery and tends to drone on and on in a monotone.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Neuron
- 04-15-13
Honest description of an imperfect science
Would you let a young inexperienced surgeon operate on your child or yourself, even if it involved a greater risk of complications, so that they could become better surgeons? Almost everyone would answer no to this question and indeed when the authors own son experienced a complication, he insisted on an experienced surgeon. Despite this it is an unavoidable fact that surgeon need practice and if they are not allowed to practice there will be no good surgeons in the future.
The reader of this book will receive an insight into the dilemmas faced by surgeons. It is a book that acknowledges the fantastic benefits of surgery while simultaneously acknowledging the fact that doctors are merely human beings and that even with the best of intentions mistakes are frequently made.
Some questions discussed (without aspiring to provide a definite solution):
● How can you provide young surgeons with practice opportunities without compromising the care of patients (and on how many animals do you let them practice before allowing them to operate on humans)
● How much should you trust a doctors “intuition” - and how does it compare to neural networks and machine algorithms.
● How should you deal with bad doctors - doctors who compromise the care of their patients because they have a depression, are stressed out or have a drinking problem (again doctors are just human beings and are affected by such things too).
Gawande takes on these and other questions. He is consistently honest about the limitations as well as the benefits that surgery involves and it seems that he does not hide unpleasant truths. All in all, Complications is a good intriguing book which I would recommend to anyone interested in surgery or medicine in general.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Z
- 04-16-06
Outstanding
This is a fantastic book. It will be enjoyable for anyone with some interest in medicine, and most likely will be thoroughly enjoyed even by those with no interest in medicine.
It's not really heavily focussed on technical aspects of medicine, though there is some detail about medical procedures but it's generally just part of setting the scene of the story.
The book is mainly a collection of stories with a common theme - that doctors are human and sometimes make mistakes. There are some stories about negligent doctors, but primarily it's about good doctors who aren't always right. There is a kind of running ethical dilemma about the balance between training and giving practice to new doctors and giving patients the best care.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Carolyn F. Auge
- 08-28-06
Not what I expected
This book was one of the more interesting ones I have read. It was informative and entertaining. The author has definately done his homework as he has provided good insight, with statistics, into how we make decisions. It's really worth reading. I have told all my friends how great and suprising this book is.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 08-15-17
missing
the audible book was missing 3 chapters of the book. I feel as if they need to add these chapters as to understand the book better.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Elizabeth
- 09-19-08
thoughtful book that makes you think
This is a thoughtful, engaging and entertaining account of a doctor's experiences with the imperfect art of practicing medicine. It makes you think about human decision making, ethics, medical mistakes, the psychology of healing, etc. If only all doctors (and people) were as sensitive and thoughtful as Atul Gawande. I would recommend it to almost anyone because many of the topics apply to situations outside of medicine. If you like this book or want to read something similar I enjoyed, "Better," Gawande's newer book just as much or more.
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3 people found this helpful