Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue

This is not a book to take lightly. This is a book about real people, with real problems. This is a book written by a doctor who takes nothing about what she does lightly. Dr. Ofri takes the sacred--a person and his/her life--and offers us a glimpse into the patient's world and the doctor's world in a poetic, gorgeous book that offers us both rare insight about ourselves and insight about human beings in general. Each essay describes a moment in time, a look at Dr. Ofri's residency at Bellevue Hospital, a glimpse of one or more of her patients, and a glance toward the human condition and how it can be both transformational and devasting. Dr. Ofri takes the mundane--an alcoholic arriving in the ER from too much imbibing--and transforms the story into one that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I am not a doctor, I am not a scientist. I am an ordinary person who will never again look ordinarily at any person whether I see them in a hospital bed or posted as a missing person on a flyer. Perhaps what sets Dr. Ofri apart is that she is a doctor, a wife, a mother. But I hope not. I hope that every doctor could aspire to having access to both sides of his/her brain, to show emotion and to offer solace in a way that Dr. Ofri has. This is a must read for anyone in the medical field and a must read for anyone who aspires to have a deeper connection in any relationship with any person.

Singular IntimaciesIf you have ever wondered what medical training is like, if you have ever fantasized about becoming a doctor, or if you just love strong writing and great stories, this is a book for you. Singular Intimacies takes us inside the emotional and intellectual heart of a doctor as she makes her journey from medical student to resident physician during her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. As a physician and poet who learned to practice medicine at similar inner-city hospitals, I can assure any reader that Dr. Ofri's descriptions of the clinical situations she encounters (including the array of patients, diagnostic dilemmas, clinical conversations, and moments of genuine love and exhilaration), all ring true for me: patients recover unexpectedly from what seem to be fatal illnesses; they die without warning and without having an accurate diagnosis; and they laugh, bleed, masturbate, cooperate, and act up in every imaginable (and unimaginable) way. Through all these experiences, Dr. Ofri shares her own personal responses which vary from her sense of pride when she begins to experience a sense of mastery, to moments of intense anxiety and despair. I found myself re-experiencing my own excitement, fear, and sleep-deprivation, only this time with a compassionate guide, one who is strong enough to let herself laugh at gallows humor, and also be vulnerable enough to cry in the arms of a priest as the patient's family watches. And I celebrated when Dr. Ofri finally finished her training , bruised and calloused, but with the compassionate heart and voice of a healer.

I am currently an intern in my first year of training at Bellevue. This book was given to me as a present upon my recent graduation from medical school. Although internship does not provide much time for pleasure reading, I am very glad I stayed up at night to read this book. Dr. Ofri is wise and caring. Her willingness to share her insecurities and imperfections is rare in the world of medicine where admissions of weakness are rare. Unlike a number of other senior and jaded doctors I have met, Dr. Ofri has not lost the caring and excitement for medicine everyone has when they begin medical school. Anyone involved in the medical profession will immediately relate to these aspects of the book. For readers not involved in medicine, the book will still be wonderful to read. It is beautifully written, and all readers will be able to relate to the human drama Dr. Ofri presents. Although I have yet to meet Dr. Ofri in person, I hope that when I am done with my training at Bellevue, I will have a fraction of her passion and compassion.

Danielle Ofri is the type of doctor you would be lucky to find, should you need one. This book is an extremeley intelligent and sensitive document of the interaction between doctor and patient, health and sickness, and the nature and limits of healing. It's also a hands-on, first person account of what it's like to work in one of the biggest and busiest hospitals in the country. Her essay, "Merced," on a patient who continuted to suffer from a mysterious and unknowable ailment, is a wrenching tale of a doctor who can't help her patient, despite incredible efforts and every modern mechanism. The fate of that patient is gripping and chilling, and she stays with me some three months after reading the book. Finally, for a doctor -- for anyone, in fact -- Danielle Ofri writes like a dream.

Singular Intimacies, Danielle Ofri's first non-technical book, is a brilliant addition to the memoirs of physicians and other health care workers. In it, Ofri chronicles her transition from medical student to internist at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. She is humble, funny, smart, sophisticated, vulnerable, and blessed with rare insight. In addition, she has the gift for lucid, direct prose. This book will appeal to physicians, other health care workers, the general public; and especially to those young persons considering a career in medicine. For this latter group and for medical students it is a "must read."Occasionally, when reading a book I feel like Keats did when he first opened Chapman's "Homer." "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." Singular Intimacies imparted this welcome and always surprising feeling to me. It should enjoy a great success and help to inspire and humanize many future (and some practicing) physicians.