Atul Gawande Summary

In this book, Atul Gawande, the author, grips medicine in all its complex and chaotic glory. This book’s three essays talk about diligence, doing right, and ingenuity based on the essential components, “for success in medicine or in any endeavor that involves risk and responsibility.” Each essay focuses on a problem such as the importance of hand-washing, health care delivery in India, and the role of physicians in executions. This book does not just talk about how to be successful in the medical field but, also in life. In the introductory chapter, he talks about how when he was a general surgery intern he had to take care of a woman who had insomnia and headaches. The woman was thought to have an infection for improper cleanliness and Guwande blamed himself because he scrubbed in on her surgery. He told his senior resident and he checked on the patient. The patient was then running a fever and had to be checked into the ICU. If Guwande had never told his senior resident, like he planned because he thought it was no big deal, just the anesthesia wearing off the women would have died. At this point in time he said that he learned he has life in his hands and that he should tell his higher-ups anytime he is not sure about something and he has some major responsibilities. Diligence — “the necessity …show more content…
He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is also Executive Director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Chairman of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. It goes without saying; this man has the credentials to write this book about the failure and successes in healthcare and how to rejoice the successes and