Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science

Atul Gawande is the author of, and central figure in, Complications. A surgical resident for the duration of the time represented in these essays, he includes his personal experiences, as well as his own reactions to doctrine and data, in each essay. This personal insight paints a picture of Gawande as a curious, self-reflective, empathetic “character” and is crucial to establishing the authority and transparency necessary to discuss the taboo areas of medicine he takes on in Complications.

In “Education of a Knife,” Gawande exposes himself as a beginner and introduces the quality of wonder that’s so central to his personality: “When you are a medical student in the operating room for the first time, and you see the surgeon press the scalpel to someone’s body and open it like fruit, you either shudder in horror or gape in awe. I gaped” (15). In “Crimson Tide,” when talking about a patient who desperately wants surgery to cure the blushing that so often humiliates her, Gawande relates using an anecdote from his own youth:

I remember once, as a teenager, buying mirrored glasses […] when I had them on I found myself staring at people brazenly, acting a little tougher.