Brilliant!!! Many of the topics covered were close to my heart. This was the second time I am reading this book after abandoning it once but after the halfway mark found it engrossing especially the pain and nausea parts.

Atul Gawande writes for The New Yorker, and I always read his articles as soon as I spot the by-line. I read "Better" last year and think it is even, yes, better. But both books have rare qualities. Gawande is a physician who can step back from his ego and write with compassion and insight about the relationship between vulnerable sick people and those whose skill and judgment they are compelled to trust.

3.5

The book is divided into 3 parts - Fallibility, Uncertainty, and Mystery

Loved the fallibility part. Author has walked us through some of the strange cases, how some tough decisions were made, and how it made a difference. There is a debate on how to train new people and increase their experince, while the preference is to provide the best possible (most experienced) medical care to each and every patient.

Some of the latter parts felt a bit dry. There were essays on pain, nausea, blushing red, and a fat man who couldnt stop eating. Couldn't connect much with those.

This was Gawande's first book (2002), who is most well-known for the excellent Being Mortal. The title may lead one to think this all about medical errors, but the subtitle provides a better insight into the contents. It was a National Book award finalist. Gawande writes with candor, thoughtfulness, and empathy in this highly readable exploration of the "imperfect science" of medicine.

The topics are placed in three different sections: 1) Fallibility: here we get the medical errors or misadventures
2) Mystery: those cases that perplex the profession. Not necessarily rare phenomena or bizarre, but those symptoms such as nausea & vomiting, blushing or pain that seems to resist all typical treatments. This was a fascinating section.
3) Uncertainty: a mismatch of ethics, forensics and gut feelings

A thoroughly enjoyable, and edifying read!!

Ok realistically this is 3.5 because some chapters I really enjoyed but overall the book was just alright. My grievances are his tone and the organization of his writing. Naturally, being a surgeon, he’s so condescending lol like reading part 1 made me wanna rip my hair out because he literally is just so annoying. I also really disliked how he would bounce around when talking about patients like just finish one thing at a time! Part 2 was definitely my favorite and I found the sections on nausea and pain really cool. Overall though it was decent and very different for me so yea!

I loved this book. The thesis is simple: Medicine is an incomplete, uncertain, mind-bogglingly complex science. But there's also a fair amount of "Doctors are people, too" and not in the "cut us some slack" sense, but in the "everybody makes mistakes" sense. If you have an infallible faith in doctors and medicine, read this book. If you think doctors are just regular Joes who don't know much more than the rest of us, read this book. If you're like me and you just like to read about medical stuff, read this book!
Gawande fills 268 pages with just the right balance of anecdote, personal opinion, and references to documented research. His writing is perfectly clear, concise, and never condescending. He seems to be not only a well-qualified writer, but also a brilliant doctor. I may be a bit giddy with admiration at the moment, but I'm not gonna lie: Atul Gawande is my new hero. I just bought his other book, Better, today, before even finishing this one.

หนังสือที่บอกเล่าความจริงเกี่ยวกับวงการแพทย์ ในเรื่องความผิดพลาดในการรักษาที่สามารถเกิดขึ้นได้และรวมไปถึงสิ่งที่ไม่คาดคิดที่ในขณะทำการรักษาคนไข้ซึ่งนอกเหนือจากการวางแผนการรักษาที่รัดกุมและการลงความเห็นของทีมแพทย์ผู้ทำรักษา ถึงแม้ว่าสิ่งเหล่านี้เกิดขึ้นได้แต่ก็ไม่ได้หมายความว่าแพทย์ตั้งใจจะทำให้เกิดความผิดพลาดขึ้น เนื้อหาในหนังสือแบ่งเป็นสามภาคได้แก่ ความพลาดพลั้ง , ปริศนาลึกลับ และความไม่แน่นอน เรื่องราวเหล่านี้ถูกเขียนโดยแพทย์นักเขียนที่ผมเคยอ่านหนังสือของเขามาก่อนหน้านี้แล้วหนึ่งเล่ม ในเล่มที่ชื่อว่า Being-Mortal ซึ่งเล่มนั้นก็เขียนได้ยอดเยี่ยมเหมือนกันกับเล่มนี้

Impactante, sorprendente, emotivo y humano.

A year or more ago, I mistakenly placed a review for Gawande's book Better under this title. I have fixed the mix up, and I have now read Complications.

Gawande is pure pleasure to read. His writing is fluid and full of germane examples as he addresses big issues like error and incompetence as well as topics that seem less significant but which he makes worthy of consideration such as blushing and nausea. The headings for each section of the book--Fallibility, Mystery, and Uncertainty--are thematic in the text. As one reviewer wrote, "Thank heaven someone wrote this book." Gawande is unapologetic and totally direct in his appraisal of medicine. What I really appreciate is that in Better, which he wrote after Complications, he gives equal time to discussing ways in which medicine can improve.

I'm a fan. A good writer and a good doc. What more could I ask for?

First book of its kind that I read.. Interesting and did not regret reading it.
I consider it a new different perspective to look at the medical fields, surgery in particular.

The process of the decision making has been described perfectly !
It is not about how to do surgery, it is when to do it..

Most of the time, you make a judgment based on your feelings, and is hard to describe how you reached such diagnosis or conclusion.

"Judgment is rarely a calculated weighing of all opinions, which are not good anyway, but instead an unconscious form of pattern recognition"

I loved the cases involved, especially when it gets complicated with ethical problems..
It is not easy dealing with patients, right of autonomy or confidentiality. It is too complicated, and depend on who you are, how you work, where you are !!

It showed me that even the best of us makes mistakes. the "when good doctors go bad" is quite scary or something that make you think about yourself.

One comment though, it discussed some cases in too much details. Like the one with the gastric-bypass surgery. The author kept going on and on about the same issue !

Overall, I loved it. I can see that I understand the book more if I had some background info about the cases.
meaning, I loved the ethical case because we just had them at school and finished discussing the major problems, like the autonomy, or the ventilation part.

I recommend the book, you shall all read it !

"No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn't reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is reasonable is to ask that we neve cease to aim for it"

One of the most profound books I have read on Surgery - which we get to know, not so comfortingly, is an imperfect science. Credit to the author for not making things too technical and covering a wide range of discussion points.

I loved the cases chosen for discussion and even better the musings on the rightness of the discussion. For example the role of M&M meetings or autopsies to keep the doctors on their toes is something which only the people in the field would understand. I could not even remotely imagine a similar role in any other field where every decision is scrutinised and "not-judged".

The more I think about, of all the ways to present a book, the book presented from the standpoint of a someone not brimming with confidence is possibly the most effective. Many of the chapters - you put yourself in the shoes of the doctor and the patient alternatively and you come up with opposing view points.

We all have had experience with medical opinion and treatment options either for us or our relatives. And thanks to series like House and Scrubs - an average individual is more aware of the field/rare cases that he should be. So the writing is even more commendable given it is not a specialised subject matter topic.

It is also interesting to note how many doctors are really good writers. This is one more brilliant book in the long line of books that are increasingly improving our understanding of the life of medical professionals (and about ourselves).

I finished this book about a week ago and the next day my mom fell and f#*$*%* broke her hip. So, this is NOT the type of book to read or even think about when you have someone in the hospital.

Most doctors, especially surgeons, are viewed as infallible but in reality they are just like us. They have bad days, they make mistakes and some of them should really change careers.

The author writes eloquently, with compassion and a clear love for surgery, which made this a fascinating book to delve into. Most of the stories felt anecdotal rather than a deep dive into the details which for a layman like me was perfect.

The author also poses a lot of ethical questions about the profession and how much patient autonomy should be allowed when making health decisions.

If you have any interest in medical memoirs you should try this author at least once.