Uncategorized | April 18, 2006

We are pleased to make available an audio file of Danielle Ofri reading the opening chapter from her new book, Incidental Findings: Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine. The chapter, “Living Will“, first appeared as an essay in the Missouri Review (27:1, 2004) and was later selected by Susan Orlean for inclusion in Best American Essays 2005. (The second chapter, “Common Grounds,” was selected by Oliver Sacks for inclusion in Best American Science Writing 2003.) Ofri is a writer, editor, and practicing physician who lives in New York City. Her essays “Merced” (TMR 24:1, 2001) and “M&M” (TMR 23:2, 2000) previously appeared in the Missouri Review.

Her first book, Singular Intimacies, which includes “Merced,” chronicles becoming a doctor by immersion at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country. In Incidental Findings, Ofri has finished her medical training and is learning through practice to become a more rounded healer. The book opens with a dramatic tale of the tables being turned on Dr. Ofri: she’s had to shed the precious white coat and credentials she worked so hard to earn and enter her own hospital as a patient.