Incidental Findings

In Singular Intimacies, which the New England Journal of Medicine said captured the''essence of becoming and being a doctor,'' Danielle Ofri led us into the hectic, constantly challenging world of big-city medicine. In Incidental Findings, she''s finished her 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. She experiences the real''slight prick and pressure'' of a long needle as well as the very real sense of invasion and panic that routinely visits her patients.

These fifteen intertwined tales include ''Living Will,'' where Dr. Ofri treats a man who has lost the will to live, and she too comes dangerously close to concluding that he has nothing to live for;''Common Ground,'' in which a patient''s difficult decision to have an abortion highlights the vulnerabilities of doctor and patient alike;''Acne,'' where she is confronted by a patient whose physical and emotional abuse she can''t possibly heal, so she must settle on treating the one thing she can, the least of her patient''s problems; and finally a stunning concluding chapter,''Tools of the Trade,'' where Dr. Ofri''s touch is the last in a woman''s long life.