Medicine In Translation

Danielle introduces us to her patients: Samuel Nwanko, who was brutally attacked by a Nigerian cult in his homeland and is attempting to create a new life in America; Jade Collier, an Aussie who refuses to let a small thing like a wheelchair keep her from being a homegrown ambassador to New York City; Julia Barquero, a Guatemalan woman who migrated to the States to save her disabled son but cannot obtain the lifesaving heart transplant she needs because she is undocumented. We meet a young Muslim woman threatened at knifepoint for wearing her veil, and the spitfire Senora Estrella, one of Danielle's many Spanish-speaking patients, whose torrent of words helps seal Danielle's resolve to improve her own Spanish, an essential skill in today's urban hospitals. And so she, her husband, and their two young children and seventy-five-pound dog relocate to Costa Rica, where they discover potholes the size of their New York City apartment, a casual absence of street signs or even street names, tangy green-skinned limon dulce dangling in the playground, and sudden rains surging over the craggy edges of roadside ditches. Ultimately, Danielle experiences being a patient in a foreign country when she gives birth to their third child, a Costarricense girl.

With controversy over immigrants in our society escalating, and debate surrounding health-care reform becoming increasingly urgent, Ofri's riveting stories about her patients could not be more timely. Living and dying in the foreign country we call home, they have much to teach us about the American way, in sickness and in health.

"Timely, beautiful, and heartbreaking, Medicine in Translation couldn't have been published at a better time. When it seems that health care (and lack thereof) is on everyone's mind, this book adds a quiet reminder of so much. Author Danielle Ofri, herself the child of immigrants, writes with humanity, poignancy, and a shot of humor in this book. I was astounded at some of the stories that Ofri gently teased from people who would really rather forget, and I loved the way she wove her own journey in with that of her patients. I shuddered while reading this book, I smiled, and I can't wait for her next one. If you're concerned about health care for the most hidden of society or if you just want a book to make you think, pick up this one. Medicine in Translation is just what the doctor ordered."

—Terri Schlicenmeyer "Her vivid and moving prose enriches the mind and turns the heart. We are privileged to journey with her."

—Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think

"Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician."

—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

"Danielle Ofri stands observing at the crossroads of the remarkable lives that intersect at Bellevue. She is dogged, perceptive, unafraid, and willing to probe her own motives as well as those of others."

—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone and My Own Country

"Her writing tumbles forth with color and emotion. She demonstrates an ear for dialogue, a humility about the limits of her medical training, and an extraordinary capacity to be touched by human suffering."

—Jan Gardner, Boston Globe

For two decades, Dr. Danielle Ofri has cared for patients at Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in the country and a crossroads for the world’s cultures. In Medicine in Translation she introduces us, in vivid, moving portraits, to her patients, who have braved language barriers, religious and racial divides, and the emotional and practical difficulties of exile in order to access quality health care. Living and dying in the foreign country we call home, they have much to teach us about the American way, in sickness and in health.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

—Sarah Halzack, Washington Post

“The stories will ring true with any nurses who struggle to understand and care for patients who in many ways remain elusively unknown.”

—Elizabeth Hanink, Working Nurse   

"Her vivid and moving prose enriches the mind and turns the heart. We are privileged to journey with her."

—Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think 

"Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician."

—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

"Danielle Ofri stands observing at the crossroads of the remarkable lives that intersect at Bellevue. She is dogged, perceptive, unafraid, and willing to probe her own motives as well as those of others."

—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone and My Own Country

"Her writing tumbles forth with color and emotion. She demonstrates an ear for dialogue, a humility about the limits of her medical training, and an extraordinary capacity to be touched by human suffering."

—Jan Gardner, Boston Globe

From the Trade Paperback edition.