Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor

Stories from the Shadows:  Reflections of a Street Doctor by James J O’Connell MD (Boston:  Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project (http://www.bhchp.org), 2015  ISBN 978-0-692-41234-3)

Stories and essays by James O'Connell, a founder of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project.

(page 49)  The packed waiting room of the clinic was eerily quiet and somber, as often happens after such frightening occurrences [stabbing between two women].  The staff was visibly shaken and Joan ventured a nervous comment on how truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction.  Jerry Niles, back in the shelter after a two-week drinking binge and soaking the remnants of his frostbitten feet in a bucket of warm water and Betadine, looked up with an insouciant smile:

“Piece of cake.  Fiction, my friends, has to make sense.”

(72)  Those with long years of drinking alcohol often walk with a wide-based gait to counter the disequilibrium caused by alcohol’s effect on the cerebellum in the brain.

(82)  Survivors of hypothermia often describe a sense of “floating in the air” and experience an intense warmth that can lead them to shed their clothes, a circumstance known as “paradoxical undressing.”

(102)  The chains were removed, the uniformed guards departed, and Roger [Ramsey] finally gave up his struggle and found some peace.  I was with him when he died early Sunday morning.  His last words to me:

“I told you no one ever listens.  But thanks.”

With some unease, I found myself sharing in his rage - indignant at a system that ignored his pain, made him a number, chained him to his deathbed, and frankly missed a crucial diagnosis.  Death tendered a fleeting glimpse into the lifelong fury of a man dealt an unplayable hand, born with dreams dashed and opportunities limited by a chemistry that bathed him in pain and anger.  But his stunning courage and rare honesty emerged unscathed.  To the end he remained his own person.

(104)  An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin 

(105)  Barbara McInniss [of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project]:  “I make no plans.  I have no dream of a different society.  I never think about that.  I’m busy surviving, like the guests.  I am intuitive… we are overwhelmed."

(128)  We know from our own studies in Boston, as well as from studies across the globe, that homeless persons suffer mortality rates that are at least fourfold higher than those of the general population.

(163)  Live life fully in each moment and the mundane is sacred.

(168)  Kip Tierney, founder of Rosie's Place, the first shelter exclusively for homeless women in Boston, MA:  “Never forget that charity is scraps from the table and justice is a seat at the table.  First, involve homeless people in all aspects of the program especially governance.  And second, find doctors and nurses who will stay the course and not abandon us after a year or two of doing good work."