A Surgeon's Notes
Categories: Science , Award Winners , Nonfiction
If you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan like me, you know all about Meredith Grey, McDreamy, McSteamy, and the rest of the surgical staff at Seattle Grace Hospital. But you might not know about a heart-pounding book called Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande.
In this collection of essays--a National Book Award finalist—Gawande candidly admits that doctors make mistakes because medicine is a human endeavor, and humans make mistakes. We follow Gawande making his rounds as a surgical resident at a Boston hospital: fumbling a central line or an emergency tracheostomy; missing a deadly aortic aneurysm. His own missteps and those of others illustrate his central theme--that medicine is not a perfect science but one full of uncertainty, guesswork, intuition, and oftentimes, mystery.
I think Gawande is the best medical writer to come along since Oliver Sacks, and I guarantee you won’t want to put this book down!
Be sure to check out his newest book, Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, which was recently added to the library's collection, or try reading some of Gawande's favorite books:
- How We Die by Sherwin Nuland
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
- The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
- This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
