Atul Gawande
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande is a collection of essays exploring the knowns and unknowns of medicine. The collection is divided into three categories: Fallibility, Mystery, and Uncertainty.
Dr. Gawande writes with honesty and compassion about medicine. Especially in the case of surgery, he reveals much of learning takes place by trial and error. The more practice a surgeon has, the better he/she becomes at performing a surgery. Although mistakes can be made in the process of learning, studies show that repetition and practice make perfect. We are reminded doctors are not machines. Just like the rest of us, they are human beings and, therefore, apt to make mistakes. But without hands-on experience, a surgeon cannot be expected to improve.
Included are essays on the following: cases which baffle doctors, for example, a patient suffering from debilitating pain for which there is no identifiable cause; graphic detail of what happens in the operating theatre; the weird sensation of cutting open human flesh; mistakes surgeons have made; and split-second decisions that have to be made by doctors and/or patients. A recurring theme is that not all medical problems can be addressed with text book answers.
In language that is engaging and clear, Dr. Gawande demystifies medicine. He shows it to be based on a combination of science, learned knowledge, practice, experience, educated guess-work, and, sometimes, a good old fashioned gut feeling. His frank account reveals the limits of medicine as a science. Although we are learning more about the human body with each passing day, there is still much that remains a mystery. Gawande is refreshingly honest and humble about medicine and how far it can take us. After all, as his subtitle tells us, it is an imperfect science. Imperfect it may very well be, but for better or worse, that’s all we’ve got to go on.