Home / Williams College / 2012
№ 2012.035 — Williams College — Commencement address
Atul Gawande
Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande uses the story of an 87-year-old patient who survived a rare surgical complication to argue that success in any field depends less on avoiding risk than on the ability to recover when things go wrong. He cites research showing the best hospitals don't have fewer complications but are better at rescuing patients, a concept called 'failure to rescue.' Drawing on the BP oil disaster and his own early career missteps, he tells graduates that the difference between triumph and defeat lies in the willingness to acknowledge failure and act to set things right.
Key moments
- 01 The story of Mrs. C's surgery and unexpected gastric complication
- 02 Research finding that top hospitals rescue more rather than fail less
- 03 Three pitfalls when things go wrong: wrong plan, inadequate plan, or no plan
- 04 BP oil disaster as an example of failing to acknowledge trouble in time
- 05 Gawande's own failures before finding his path in medicine
Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording