Book excerpt
NPR Interview with Brian Lehrer: Empathy for “Undesirable” Patients
Doctors have notorious contempt for alcoholics, drug addicts, and morbidly obese patients, and they often make little effort to conceal it. By unspoken rules, these patients are considered fair game for jokes by medical personnel at all levels. Hospital slang for such patients reflects not just disgust but also anger and resentment. More
Merced
“This is a case of a 23 year-old Hispanic female…†The speaker droned on with the details of the case that I knew so well. I leaned back in my chair, anticipating and savoring the accolades that were going to come. After all, in a roundabout way, I’d made the diagnosis. I was the one who had the idea to send the Lyme test in the first place. More
Meet Dr. Chan….
“Dr. Chan and Mrs. Geng eased out of their chairs in the waiting room using their matching wooden canes, the kind distributed by the hospital, free of charge. At 89, Dr. Chan was stooped and frail, his body paper-thin. He seemed as though he might topple over from the breeze generated by the opening and … More
The Pastor’s Son
There was a sharp rap at the apartment door. When Samuel Chuks Nwanko opened it, he saw a young man standing in the hallway wearing a stained denim jacket over a University of Nigeria T-shirt. The whites of his eyes were spidered with crimson streaks. He was probably a fellow university student, but not in the civil engineering department. Samuel didn’t recognize him. More
Scenes From the Lives They Lived in the City
”Nine P.M.,” somebody shouted. ”Rikers bus rollin’ in!” I stepped out of the Bellevue E.R. into the chilly spring night to see what the excitement was. Just pulling in was a school bus, the kind I’d taken every day in elementary school… More
“July 1st” : Part Three
Watch the final installment of Danielle reading “July 1st,†the poignant and funny story about the first day of internship. One of the most popular requests of her readings. (From “Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue.†More
“July 1st” : Part Two
Watch Part Two of Danielle reading “July 1st,†the poignant and funny story about the first day of internship. One of the most popular requests of her readings. (From “Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue.†More
“July 1st”: Part One
Watch the video of Danielle reading “July 1st,†the poignant and funny story about the first day of internship. One of the most popular requests of her readings. (From “Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue.†More
Video of “Intensive Care”
Danielle reads the powerful essay “Intensive Careâ€â€“about the internal struggles of caregivers. This reading from her book “Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue.†More
Video: “Tools of the Trade”
Watch Danielle Ofri read the moving essay “Tools of the Trade” from her book Incidental Findings. More
July 1st–excerpt from “Singular Intimacies”
“It suddenly dawned on me that I’d never had a lecture in medical school on how to tell if someone is dead.” More
Torment
I groan when I catch sight of her name on the patient roster. Nazma Uddin. Not again! She is in my clinic office almost every month. I dread her visits, and today is no exception. More
Tools of the Trade
I was ashamed to admit it, but I was perversely thankful for the numerous comatose patients on my service because they made rounds faster and left more time to concentrate on the active GI bleeders, the patients in DKA, the ones with gram-negative septicemia, and the ones who spoke English. More
