Part I - When Good Doctors Go Bad Summary and Analysis

Although Gawande dedicates several chapters to talking about the humanity of surgery and how mistakes happen, it is also true that some mistakes should never happen. In this part, Gawande outlines what happens "when good doctors go bad." By "bad," Gawande does not mean the media cases of serial killer doctors or physicians practicing without a license—instead, he discusses what happens when a surgeon seemingly loses his "touch" and seemingly stops caring.

Doctors, in some senses, are expected to be super-human, but they are not immune to stresses and maladaptive behaviors such as alcoholism or mental illnesses such as depression. Burn-out is just as common in doctors as in the rest of the population.

Gawande describes the case of Hank Goodman, a once brilliant orthopedic...