Here’s a book that might do more than health reform to get readers to question doctors’ recommendations for medical procedures. Gibson and Singh, who together broached the subject earlier in Wall of Silence
, offer tales of patients who have been horrifically—sometimes fatally—ill-advised by doctors to have unnecessary medical procedures with unexpected complications. One man went for knee replacement surgery to ease his aching legs and died of a heart attack; a fireman was subjected to unnecessary heart bypass surgery; and a South Carolina teen died from complications of an unsafe but slickly marketed new procedure for a mild case of a condition called funnel chest. These cases are numerous and shocking. The solutions are less obvious. The authors cite experts who say the problem is systemic—doctors get paid for procedures—but suggest that patients can protect themselves by becoming informed consumers. The authors offer no roadmap through the maze of medical decision making, but these warnings are a welcome guide in a process that too often depends on a patient’s leap of faith. (Mar.)
