An Aspiring Surgeon's Notes on a Surgeon's Notes

Even though I am a notoriously slow reader, I managed to finish Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science in only three days. I have since started Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, a novel by the same author, and my love for UCDavis has really taken hold. In the first fifty or so pages, not one surgeon, doctor, public health intervention, or historical disease incident has been mentioned that I am not familiar with. Semmelweis? Of course! He's the guy who determined that childbed fever and subsequent maternal death came as a result of poor doctor hygiene (particularly, not washing hands between patients). In 1847, he stood by his hospital's sole handwashing station and intimidated doctors into washing their hands. Thus hospital hand-washing protocols were born. They also talk about polio interventions and "mop-up" vaccination programs in India. And Robert Liston, THE FASTEST KNIFE IN THE WEST END! This guy is a legend, and one of my favorite surgeons. Infamously amputated a leg in 2-1/2 minutes, and managed to somehow take 3 casualties in the process: the patient and an assistant died from gangrene as a result of the procedure, and another assistant in the room purportedly had a heart attack witnessing the blood-bath.  The first assistant got gangrene because Liston cut off his fingers by accident while trying to do the amputation so hastily. Liston was insane. Anyways, it's been a good Summer for books written by surgeons, and I only have two more days of calculus left!