Article Analysis Essay on "When Doctors Make Mistakes"

Introduction

Dr. Atul Gawande is a surgeon, writer and researcher. In the article, "When Doctors Make Mistakes", he describes a personal experience; giving an insight of events during an emergency attendance at a hospital when he was the resident doctor on duty and alongside other doctors and nurses, administered an unsuccessful operation. The writer in his perception feels that his mistakes and those of his colleagues at the operation room made worse the bad situation of the patient. Dr. Gawande goes ahead to point out the existence of such mistakes and the fact that they are made on a daily basis by reputable and high level doctors. He says, "The way that things go wrong in medicine is normally unseen and consequently often misunderstood. Mistakes do happen" (p. 46).

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Thesis Statement

I seek to give an analyzed version of Gawande's essay and his opinion on mistakes and errors made in hospitals. I shall further discuss the writer's thought on human mistakes in hospitals and the respective responsibility holders of the said errors. Dr. Gawande in his article sees doctors as human guided by ethics, emotions and logics. I also seek to discuss the analogical citations done by Dr. Gawande, all which relate to human errors in various fields besides medical and what other researchers say about human errors.

An Analysis of the Writer’s Article

Dr. Atul Gawande's article generally points to the fact that human errors in hospitals are inevitable and that doctors also make mistakes like any other. The tittle of the article, "When Doctors Make Mistakes" is a self-explanatory acknowledgement of a fact that medical practitioners are also humans. The sequential narration by the writer in the case of a car-crash victim draws readers' attention to a rare story complete with imagery, a word by word account of the events as they transpired in the operation room. Dr. Gawande goes ahead to introduce another experience of another operation which almost went wrong in his hands. By talking about his personal experience, the writer introduces his readers to the real world, he humanizes himself and other doctors suggesting that they also make mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes.

Dr. Gawande holds the opinion that doctors never talk about their mistakes. His article presents a bold confession that few people are often willing to make due to fear of tainting their reputation or loss of job, a sacrifice made just to bring to light the unimaginable fact that indeed doctors also make mistakes. The writer acknowledges in his writing that mistakes made by doctors in line of duty make patients move from bad to worse states and hence denying such doctors the freedom to converse freely with their patients. In the writer's opinion, such doctors talk their experiences of human errors only at the hospitals the conferences of mortality and morbidity also known as M and M. Here, they freely talk about their errors because they are protected by law from any form of suits. Dr. Gawande says that doctors to hide from mistakes, events that outward and also deaths that occur in their presents ,and they also assist in figuring out what to be done differently , and deaths that occurred on their watch, determine responsibility, and figure out what to do differently" (p. 58). His choice of words suggests his thought against M and M's. It does not augur well with ethics.

The writer believes that human mistakes in hospitals are not caused by negligence or lack of experience, they are just mistakes. He further illustrates that errors occur even when surgeons employ utmost carefulness and sometimes in the hands of reputable and respected doctors. The writer in his suggestions holds the idea that human errors are unavoidable and they can always happen. The existence of regular M and M's in medical facilities is also clear proof that medical errors are always anticipated. Doctors can also clear up emotions derived from human errors by talking them out at the M and M's.

As such, he uses the rhetoric appeals to persuade the audience. For example, he uses ethos with an aim of persuading his audience by making theme feel and develop certain emotions. Gawande asserts that the way that thing go wrong in medicine is normally unseen and consequently often misunderstood. Mistakes do happen. We think of them as aberrant; they are anything but.

A 2018 research conducted by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago (NORC) revealed that up to twenty one percent patients fall victim to medical errors. The research also found out that nearly 300,000 deaths in the United States are caused by medical human errors. Another Study done by Harvard University in 1991 revealed that about 4 percent of patients ended up with treatment-related complication further revealing that a large proportion of such complications were caused by mistakes by doctors. Dr. Gawande in his writing introduced the thoughts of a psychologist, James Reason who suggested in his book, "Human Error" that there exist a lot of "latent errors" in difficult systems. The introduction of James Reason's idea indicates the writer's node with it, agreeing that mistakes indeed exist in complex systems. He laughs about the precept that has been assumed by the field of anesthesiology which presumes successful results always, terming it extraordinary.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is worth noting and agreeing with that there are indeed instances when doctors make mistakes. As the saying goes, "to err is human", not even doctors can be perfect because they are also humans, bound to make mistakes.

Works Cited

Gawande, Atul. "Annals of Medicine: When Doctors Make Mistakes." New Yorker-New Yorker Magazine Incorporated- (1999): 40-43.