In ancient Greece, the asclepion was a healing temple dedicated to Asclepius, the God of Medicine. Asclepius learned the art of surgery from the centaur Chiron and had the ability to raise the dead. The Rod of Asclepius is a roughhewn branch entwined with a single serpent.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Complications
I recently reread the book Complications by Atul Gawande. He is a general surgeon and assistant professor at Harvard who writes for The New Yorker. This book is a series of narrative essays on various issues in medicine: training in procedures, conferences, flesh-eating bacteria. I had heard and known about many of these topics, but his writing is eloquent, poignant, and engaging. I really think his rhetoric and narrative bring this book to a new level and makes the reader think. He is able to combine scientific evidence with patient cases in an easily-readable fashion for the layperson. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine.
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