Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect ScienceThe international bestseller from the author of Being Mortal |
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Gawande is a skilled storyteller and surgeon with razor sharp wit and strong steady hand. " Outer facia layer was grey, dead and streptococcus A toxic" (in his mention of 23 year old girl in the Operating Room).
When a surgeon murmurs a expletive rich epithet after confirming a patient came in with necrotizing fasciitis---which is a complex reference to a particularly nefarious flesh-eating bacteria---confirming it's potentially lethal or in this case amputation is not an option.
Truly riveting and a must read for the curious, medical student or investigative medical journalist. Learned "to describe one case is to describe them all" as surgeons are machine-like with an insignificant error margin and thus perform consistently despite any external pressure. Many lessons within, wisdom rich and educates lightly, buy it!
Contents
1 | |
The Computer and the Hernia Factory | 35 |
Nine Thousand Surgeons | 75 |
When Good Doctors Go Bad | 88 |
PartIIMystery | 109 |
A Queasy Feeling | 130 |
Crimson Tide | 146 |
The Man Who Couldnt Stop Eating | 162 |
PartIIIUncertainty | 187 |
The Dead Baby Mystery | 202 |
The Case of the Red Leg | 228 |
Notes on Sources | 253 |