Part I - Education of a Knife Summary and Analysis

"Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science" is a book about the experience of becoming a surgeon. The author, a surgical resident, uses research, personal experience, and case studies to discuss the various challenges of the field including the fallibility of doctors, medical mysteries, and what to do in the face of uncertainty.

In "Education of a Knife," Gawande discusses the process of how surgeons learn—by practice. He uses the example of his "first real procedure," putting a central line, an intravenous line that would go into the main blood vessel of the heart, in a patient. Although he had watched his supervising chief resident perform the procedure before, he forgets three key steps in the preparation and is unsuccessful with the needle two times before...