Do you have what it takes to perform tasks you have never completed before on a person whose life is at risk while working relentless hours? Complications is a book of anecdotes about Atul Gawande’s, a surgical resident, viewpoints and experiences regarded the current health care setting.

His stories include instances of fallibility, mystery, and uncertainty. The section about fallibility explains that doctors do make mistakes. The issue with the education of doctors comes when the doctor is asked to perform a task for the first time. More often than not this task is hard to complete correctly for the first time. Controversy enters the scene when it needs to be decided which patients receive care from the inexperienced versus the experienced. Mystery comes into play when the symptoms or conditions have not yet been explained by current medical sciences and research. This results in the inability to reach a diagnosis. His last section of the book is uncertainty. This part discusses how to reach the right diagnosis or decision. Uncertainty is a big issue when many disorders and diseases have similar symptoms making it hard to reach the correct diagnosis. It is also a problem when there is more than one option making it hard to decide which one is the best for the patient and/or family.

To me the lesson in this book was sometimes you need to learn from experience. I wanted to read this book because it deals with the medical field. The medical field is important to me as both of my parents are physicians. I can relate to Atul because as with the medical field life has a lot of uncertainty and decisions to be made. This book lived up to the expectations of having intriguing real-life encounters. People should read this book because it has an interesting take on how surgeons learn. Though this book is meant for those with experience within the medical field, I believe those with little experience in the field would enjoy it.

I have always been fascinated by medical mysteries and the process by which doctors reach diagnostic conclusions. Atul Gawande does a wonderful job of telling the story of his experience with this aspect of science in terms an intelligent layman can easily understand.

This is a good read for all medical students, as it expands your perspective on medicine as a whole. I found part one, fallibility, to especially enlightening and engaging.

It was definitely worth reading, and the parts I loved most were the ones dedicated to the description of medical cases he handled, where he walked us through the diagnosis and the treatment phase.
There were, however, parts where he just went on ranting, losing his train of thought in what seemed to me like an attempt to justify his or his colleagues' calls in some of the cases.

I loved how Gawande went about showing us the weak and uncertain side of part of his medical career, choosing cases where his judgment and performance weren't as perfect as everyone expects from a doctor, and a surgeon in particular.

There were some pretty nutso cases in this one. Interesting to read the surgical attitudes from about 20 years ago and see what was new and developing in that time. Mr. Atul is one of my favorite authors and has such a good perspective on medicine.

Wow - this book was so great. I'm sad that it's over! It is basically a collection of stories as told by Dr. Gawande - stories that he has collected from his time in surgical residency. He discusses mistakes that doctors make in medicine, a collection of hard-to-solve cases, and medical uncertainty. This is among the first medical-related books that I have ever read, which helped to add to the intrigue and absolute fascination. Some of my favorite parts were his discussion on inexplicable chronic pain and also uncontrollable, debilitating blushing. I also loved his musing on patient autonomy in which he dissected (hehe, get it. he's a surgeon) the problems that a doctor faces when having to make a decision for his patient. Sometimes, patients will refuse a certain treatment - it was interesting to see how he navigates that. Also there is a section on a horrible flesh-eating bacteria that usually requires full amputation. The book as a whole had a powerful delivery and was very well written. I plan to read more by Dr. Gawande and will probably continually cite them as a confirmation that I want to be a doctor (and maybe even a surgeon - who knows).

4.5 — some chapters in the middle felt kind of random but otherwise I really enjoyed this book.

Picked this up at the free little library, because I really admired Gawande’s writing in his most recent book Being Mortal.

We think of medicine as being about science, but it’s really about the humans who administer that science in imperfect ways. These fallible humans are tasked with making decisions in the face of great uncertainty and often a gaping lack of knowledge. That’s what this book was about.

This was interesting though a bit all over the place. Topics included everything from physician mistakes, treating patients according to the doctor's vibes, to autopsies.

This was probably the best book I have read for Atul Gawande yet. Atul has a great way of laying out his ideas and experience through story-telling. He takes the reader into journeys around a particular topic very smoothly and in an enjoyable way.
He's got a nice approach to writing. He starts with an interesting introduction on something he wants to discuss and shed light on, lays down the background and fundamentals, without neglecting to convey across any intricacies involved. This often has to do with a patient he had seen or had been exposed to his/her situation; a very humanizing approach that catches the reader's attention and feelings.
He then moves on to put this problem in perspective technical, historical, ... etc, putting it in context. Then goes back to the patient, the human factor, and finishes off the story, often, with satisfying closure.
This is a great book of his. I particularly liked the last chapter, on "Uncertainty".

Gawande, a surgeon, argues that medicine isn't an exact science and therefore mistakes are inevitable. He then explores the line between that potential for error and the humanity necessary to make doctors good at what they do.
This is a good, interesting read with all sorts of worthy insights, and Gawande is an excellent writer. My only issue with it is that I have Surgery/Hospital Fear, and his anecdotes supporting the message of medicine as not infallible really didn't help that. It's, of course, my own shortcoming and not the book's, and I can otherwise happily recommend it.

Amazing book! Completely mandatory to anyone who is studying medicine or is a medical doctor.