Complications by Atul Gawande Complications Atul Gawande Cover Art
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| Author | Atul Gawande |
|---|---|
| Land | Usa of America |
| Language | English language |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Published | Jan 1, 2002 |
| Publisher | Picador |
| ISBN | 1861974132 |
Complications: A Surgeon'due south Notes on an Imperfect Science is a nonfiction book collection of essays written past the American surgeon Atul Gawande. Gawande wrote this during his general surgery residency at Brigham and Women'southward Infirmary and was published in 2002 by Picador.[ane] The book is divided into three sections: Fallibility, Mystery, and Doubt, all going in depth into the problems physicians may face when practicing a multifariousness of procedures in medicine.[ii] Each of these sections puts forth different challenges doctors must face that make them imperfect and errant, resulting in the inevitable occurrence of errors.[three]
Groundwork [edit]
Atul Gawande wrote the Complications during his surgical residency at Brigham and Women'due south Hospital.[4] Working approximately 110 hours a week, Gawande would have to exit his writing of his essays for the nighttime and the weekends. Although the amount of time Gawande would spend working made it more hard to complete his writing projects, this large workload immune him to be exposed to more experiences.[five] Before the publication of Complications, Gawande published some of the essays on The New Yorker, including The Pain Perplex, When Doctors Brand Mistakes, A Queasy Feeling, Whose Body Is It, Anyhow?, When Good Doctors Go Bad, Scarlet Tide, Final Cut, and The Man Who Couldn't Stop Eating.[6] The Dead Infant Mystery was besides published prior to the release of Complications on Slate mag.[7]
Themes [edit]
Fallibility in Medicine [edit]
In the writing of Complications, Gawande attempts to elucidate medicine. In many of the essays included in the book, in particular When Doctors Make Mistakes and Education of a Knife, demonstrate many of the mistakes physicians may make when treating their patients. In these two essays, Gawande discusses his own struggles inserting a key venous catheter and performing an emergency tracheotomy that nearly results in the expiry of the patient. These anecdotes serve the purpose of shedding light on the fallibility of doctors and the imperfect nature of medicine. Since doctors are humans, they are also prone to making mistakes when assessing the conditions of their patients or when performing a sure procedure. This humanizing of doctors that takes place in Complications relieves the pressure doctors may experience when they make man mistakes and it as well calls for a new patient culture. By knowing the fallibility nowadays in medicine, patients with more information may know how to ask the correct questions at the right moments to challenge doctors that may reduce the possibility of errors while also knowing when to have religion in the arrangement during emergency situations.[8]
Mystery in Medicine [edit]
A major theme Gawande touches on is the theme of mystery in medicine. The entire second section of the volume, Mystery, goes over patient cases Gawande attends to that stalk from unknown causes or are merely rarely found. The Case of the Red Leg (this is in part 3 - Doubtfulness), is an instance of how the mystery behind a disease impacts the work physicians must practice. When confronted with a scenario in which the patient could either have a common cellulitis affliction or a rare, deadly necrotizing fasciitis. Heavily influenced by his recent exposure to necrotizing fasciitis, Gawande decides to do a biopsy. This case reflects how sometimes, physicians must use not only science to treat patients, only intuition as well due to the fact electric current science can't conspicuously identify a disease. This theme is also resonated in The Hurting Perplex which concerns itself with the problems of treating hurting that is caused by the brain. Doctors are unsure of the causes of this pain and don't exactly know how to treat information technology. This mystery surrounding medicine demonstrates its own imperfection that doctors and patients should both be aware of. By knowing the shortcomings of medicine, doctors and patients alike are able to amend the care and doctor-patient relationship since they are aware of what medicine tin can reach through science and its limitations.[ix] [10]
Ethics in Medicine [edit]
Complications goes over many of the ethical issues nowadays in medicine today. In Didactics of a Knife, the morality of the learning process for future doctors is discussed. Hereafter doctors learn how to perform a certain procedure past doing surgery on patients, pregnant that some patients will accept to be the starting time time for future physicians when learning a surgery, every bit is the instance with Gawande when he learns to perform a central line. The moral dilemma raised from this is whether it is fair to the first-fourth dimension patients that must take to deal with the drawbacks of having an inexperienced physician perform surgery on them. The additional problem is that if learning physicians aren't allowed to perform surgeries, how will they be able to fully master the concept of surgery without putting information technology to practice.[10]
The upstanding dilemma that arises from the autonomy of patients versus the patriarchy of the doctors is as well discussed in Complications. This result consists of who has control over the procedure to exist put into action when facing life or death scenarios, the doctor or the patient? In the essay of Whose Body Is Information technology Anyway? Gawande goes into particular over his firsthand feel facing this dilemma. The doctors wanted to place their patient on assisted breathing to keep him alive merely the patient didn't desire to be placed on it. When the patient went unconscious, the doctors proceeded to assistance his breathing which immune him to stay live. The ethical question that arises from this situation is should the patient accept full command over their trunk regardless of their lesser knowledge when compared to physicians that could maybe relieve their lives?[9]
Critical Reception [edit]
Since its release in 2002, Complications has been widely lauded by various sources. Many people applaud Gawande'due south writing style, in which he goes into item over the medical procedures he discusses while simultaneously going over upstanding and medical bug present in current wellness care. Dr. Robert Crowell from University of Massachusetts Medical Schoolhouse writes about this in his review, describing Gawande'due south writing manner as a "mixture of pilus-raising surgical cases, careful inspection of relevant scientific literature, empathetic partnership with the patient, and exploration of ethical and philosophic considerations".[xi] Gawande's utilize of words goes a long style in illustrating the important images he wants the reader to capture; this skillfulness has been referred to as "exact magic" by The New York Times.[12]
Another component of Gawande'south Complications that evokes positive criticism is the honesty that projects from it. Gawande does not hold dorsum from acknowledging his own shortcomings along with those of other doctors. This direct honesty allows Gawande to "lift the veil of obscurity and obfuscation" that covers the truth behind medicine and surgery.[9] Some other source likewise claims that "'Complications' impresses for its truth and actuality" which results in Gawande having the ability to brainwash his reading audience while entertaining them with his anecdotes.[12]
Recognition [edit]
Complications was a National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction in 2002.[13] Following its original publication in 2002 in the United States, Complications has been published in over 20 dissimilar languages and over 100 countries.[fourteen]
References [edit]
- ^ "Atul Gawande, MD,MPH - Brigham and Women'southward Hospital". physiciandirectory.brighamandwomens.org . Retrieved 2017-12-04 .
- ^ "Complications: A Surgeon'southward Notes on an Imperfect Science". medhum.med.nyu.edu . Retrieved 2017-12-04 .
- ^ Lubet, Steven. "Complications: A Surgeon'southward Notes on an Imperfect Scientific discipline." Cornell Constabulary Review, May 2003, p. 1178+. Academic OneFile, Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.
- ^ "Atul Gawande — What Matters in the Terminate". The On Being Projection . Retrieved 2018-03-11 .
- ^ "Complications". Atul Gawande . Retrieved 2018-03-19 .
- ^ "Atul Gawande". The New Yorker . Retrieved 2018-03-11 .
- ^ Gawande, Atul (1998-09-04). "The Dead Baby Mystery". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-03-11 .
- ^ "Atlantic Unbound | Interviews | 2002.05.01". www.theatlantic.com . Retrieved 2018-03-xi .
- ^ a b c Nuland, Sherwin B. (2002-07-eighteen). "Whoops!". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2018-03-19 .
- ^ a b Klass, Perri (2002-11-21). "Volume Review". New England Journal of Medicine. 347 (21): 1727–1728. doi:10.1056/NEJM200211213472125. ISSN 0028-4793.
- ^ Sinal, Southward. H. (2002-ten-09). "Silenced Angels: The Medical, Legal, and Social Aspects of Shaken Baby Syndrome". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 288 (xiv): 1781. doi:10.1001/jama.288.14.1781. ISSN 0098-7484.
- ^ a b Gonzalez-Crussi, F. (2002-04-07). "Oops". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-19 .
- ^ "Complications | Atul Gawande | Macmillan". US Macmillan . Retrieved 2017-12-x .
- ^ "2010 | Museum of Science, Boston". www.mos.org . Retrieved 2018-03-xi .
External links [edit]
- Presentation by Gawande on Complications, May 6, 2002, C-SPAN
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