Complications

A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

By: Atul Gawande

Narrated by: William David Griffith

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is - complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human.

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.

©2002 Atul Gawande (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

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)

Brilliant read

If you could sum up Complications in three words, what would they be?

informative eye-opening must-read

What did you like best about this story?

The revelation that doctors are fallible human beings - not super beings. It also highlights the fact that any medical procedure is risky

Loved it.

Great book; it helped me become more familiar with the realities of being a surgeon. It is Definitely worth reading.

informational with what being a doctor takes.

great book! it is reassuring that I am on the right path. did not want to stop listening.

important read for today's society

anyone who has a body and has visited the doctor or will someday need medical care should read this. wonderful insight. would help our culture understand the imperfection, the heroism, and the reality of the science of medicine.

Nothing beats Dr. Atul Gawande’s books

Once again, Dr. Gawande delivers with his thoughts and accounts of his doctoring experience. I could listen to his books every day. Thanks Dr. Gawande, for taking time out of your busy schedule, to write books for the medically interested layperson.

A heart thumper

Got thru it but my heart was racing. Atul does a great job of pulling the listener right into the medical events and procedures... pretty darn cool when someone can do that.. Kept me asking for the Unabridged version.

Complicated Events but Spot on Writing

Awesome writer, whose prose is so clear and compelling...there are few writers I will instantly want to read, Gawande is definitely one.

Great book with interesting experience

This book is going to give you a new respect to how surgeons work and there feelings and emotions.. Five stars

Enjoyed it, but...

There were multiple mispronunciations which bugged me. These would be noticeable to anyone in the medical professions.

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.